today at the Veteran’s Writing Workshop with our fearless leader Leilani Squire and our prompts by Rick – which were

strength of spirit

what spirit do we find within 

breaking through the walls of heaven

 

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it was from a street of a young boy running

it was in the heart with the blue blood pumping

it was while the rocks came pummeling down

hitting him

ding ting ding

hit in the head, hit in the elbow, hit in the back

being hailed by dirty whitish railroad rocks

 

they were up on the hill

mine legs carried me swiftly as i started to zig and zag

no rock hit again

the boy skidaddled down the dirt path up to Summit street

a tumultuous time of racism still lingering

the toll of the narrowed minds and those so blind to who we all are

it was on both sides and the light sometimes lied

when one would exercise their will upon another

for an atrocity or atrocities that were caused by another – or – others

 

i ran and ran, and hid under that slight second hill on the exit of the Micky D’s parking lot

the sign said something like, over 20 million served

today we know of the disservice of cheap food, now don’t we

in the calm, but not knowing what it was that was racing through the brain

was it anything at all

was i just waiting, and then for what was i waiting for

 

sure enough, the two little boys who were hurling the rocks at me were coming my way

didy bopping along, in joyous song at how many times the hit the white kid with their weapons from the railroad tracks

big smiles on their face in their cheerful talking, until they seen me pop out from behind that little tiny hill

i was short too, small for my age, and they, the other 2 boys were about a half a head shorter than i

 

picking both of them up by the scruffs of their shirts

in my lack of understanding why it was that they were throwing rocks at me

i started yelling at them, why, why, why are U throwing rocks at me, i did nothing to U…

did i cuss at them, i can’t recall, i just was screaming at them! wanting to understand exactly what was going on.

it would only be in refections decades later, that i knew very well what was happening

it was hundreds of years of people like me fucking over people like them.

i was not those people, i was never that person

and neither were they

but we were on 2 ends of this spirituality that kept us there in our heads

kept us there while we were thinking in it and i was certainly thinking outside of it, though i certainly was in it in that disconnected way

 

i never seen those boys again, i don’t think i did anyway

maybe my pondering alleviated there thoughts about my type

the Polish type – with no connection to what they thought me to be

 

it was shortly after that, when i was given a lesson

the best lesson my dad ever taught me was through the simple words, yet they were very complex, as many people were not following them, especially during that time, in the early 70’s and the civil rights turbulence was still shattering and maybe slightly bringing people together!

those words, they were, never hate a people for what someone has done to U, only hate the person, or maybe dislike or be angry with the person was the spirit of those words.

my first memory of spirituality, was in the lesson that individuals do things to U and not a people, and being that i don’t believe that there are any races, just looking at everybody, common sense ttells me there is one race of numerous cultures and ethnicities

this is the first evidence of spirituality that i noticed as to who i am, but perhaps in other reflections, there are much more pieces of evidence, like, my knowing that we were the human race when i was very young, and always making my own box and putting human race, and checking my own box because i refused to check a box of ignorance

today

decades later

experiences that would have killed many, maybe most, one shall never know, but those that i have told, many say that they would never have been able to survive, that they would have never made it through what i have gone through

nor would i have wanted them to, nor most to go through what i have gone through, i say most, some people make and deserve the hell they make until they decide that it would be better to find civility in all that they do, for the entity of love shall carry the world to the best places that it can ever experience, and all of it’s inhabitants shall be all the better for it

so civility on the premise of love with the parallel of truth never departing

this void of all the experiences i have yet to share with all of you is the current

spirit within

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