Please, don't scroll by!

Please, don’t scroll by...

*insert positive poem here*, if need be.

Rainbows and sunshine, a spoonful of sugar!

As long as you'll stay...

Long enough to swallow the bitters,

to look at the hard parts.

Lift my chin up, dripping with medicine,

to see the emotion brewing in my pupils, these students of mine,

trying to understand this world around us.

Trying to swallow what’s actually here,

to learn that all of this is God regardless of what we see.

Thick, sticky trick of an illusion.

Wait what?

That’s not an illusion, that's a child freezing!

A criminal unpunished!

That’s an ocean poisoned!

It’s really happening to those affected...

All of us.

Lean in to the good and also the bad.

Please dont ignore the ugly,

the grime forming where we refuse to look.

It’s still there,

hurting

all of us.

{flinch} Ouch!

I know... I know...

"Don’t focus on the negative"

*Insert affirmative prayer here*

Good news and spiritual upliftment!

As long as you'll pray

when I’m too shattered to think it matters

as so much doesn’t seem to.

Like the 3 pounds of plastic to package more plastic

Like the neighbors in shackles, metaphoric and actual

Like the fires that burn ever closer to home

And who needs the guilt?

It crushes too much, so hard to hold.

It’s not our fault, right?

We are good people... doing the best that we can...

and if we could we would do better!

Remind me of that phrase again about good men who do nothing,

no matter how bitter it tastes!

Depressed from trying to reach the golden button

that fixes everything..

The one that doesn’t exist.

Lift my chin up to give me

a reason to smile.

Not a distraction.

Not a shaming for being ashamed.

Not another spoonful of sugar, it's making me sick!

It's making the world sick.

Just the medicine, please?

No matter the pain.

There’s a reason to smile

when you give it to me straight,

when you love me while we're aching.

Don’t fix me while I’m breaking

it's medicine for me!

To look at it. To lean in.

Even while I feel like I’m doing nothing..

because I can do something

once I know and don't hide.

When I grow by your side.

With that constant reminder.

The awareness of shadow

but the knowledge of light.

Yes, it is all God!

As well as the seemingly impossible journey

for justice and peace.

Yes, it all is God..

good news and bad,

easy and hard.

Doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to

be uncomfortable and face it!

Lift my chin up to see

the monster I am..

the God I am..

The reflection of yourself,

you monster!

You God!

Bless this

or.. damn it...

but please don’t just scroll by!