Liberated Theological Silence

Why did I speak?
I could have kept quiet...
That was the way I always handled
Uncomfortable Situations
With silence, head hung low and eyes looking away.

Why did I speak?
When the easy way, the popular way, the safe way
Was silence.

I've witnessed injustice before, and minded my own business
And pretended that the pain in another's face was not my own
But this time it happened
It was an impulse
A power greater than myself took over
And love
For peace and justice
Spoke.

And I embarked upon a journey
A quest
A pilgrimage of soul
To overcome oppression
With love....

Shelley D.B. Copeland

Untitled

He broke me down
like a cardboard box
and put me out on the cold sidewalk

She came at night
and scooped me up
and brought me to her trash-to-energy plant

I felt so comforted
enclosed and enfolded
in a safe space
with others just like me

Then she began to sort through us
and send us through the doorway

I walked alone
into the radiant umber room
where I felt the heat of my burden

There was only one place to go

Frightened, but trusting, I entered the fire
that consumed me and changed me forever

"Now fly away," she said,
"And go back and face him, renewed."

Lynne Mikulak