What would you tell God, she asks
What would you tell God if you were at Heaven’s doorsteps?
for all the good it does to be called articulate
words don’t shape themselves in my mouth.

Because it’s not what would I tell God.
It’s what do I ask
and where do I begin.

Like–
Why don’t we choose love over fear?

There are classes of people
running in the direction of Holy
who beat up their wives behind doors
who have created poor and homeless
who dig tombs instead of hospitals
who run the world without mercy.

There are classes of people
who believe in freedom
inherited through other people’s suffering
who close their eyes on
cigarette buds on naked skin.

There is soot plastered on my ancestors.
I was born and burn on this earth
too see a people, my people
learn to love over generations
of getting it wrong despite God’s presence.