If “Can”, and “Must”, and “Should” Become…

If from these shores where we now stand

By ocean, lake, and river tides,

And cast our thoughts to other lands,

Our hearts to other sides—

If from our lives we lift our sights

From barrio and ghetto-‘hood,

Past walls of prison days and nights

Toward “can”, and “must”, and “should”—

If from our blinders we depart

To find the sky’s immense expanse

Reflecting back into our heart

The world where others dance—

Where cargo goes and comes around,

Where forests stripped by profit greed,

And camps, and mines, and shantytowns

Twist every human need—

Through manacles on minds and hearts,

Through lives of class and lives of caste,

Where we and others dance our parts,

Millenniums have passed—

In cratered cities, blood-soaked lands,

With lives still stalked by heartless fates

Set loose on earth by deathly hands;

We gather at the gates—

When at these gates, and from these shores,

Begins a full and true embrace

Where “can”, and “must”, and “should” combine;

We touch each other’s face—

And, recognize ourselves in kind

As tears and laughter rise and fall

From many-colored countenance;

We rip the darkened pall—

If from these shores, and at these gates,

We reach to claim our life on Earth,

And, “can”, and “must”, and “should” reveal

A better world in birth…