Justice Sleeps By A. L. Stone Hold open the door and peer into the darkness See the truth hanging in the air Bodies dangling, jaws repeat “There is no love for you here and no change is on its way.” Oh, the horrors we subject each other to The things we tolerate and yet remain silent. And where is Justice? Asleep beneath the porch While a blaze of hatred rages on Casting fiery bars through the floorboards. She is imprisoned and yet dreams sweetly. She is abandoned and yet feels right at home. Justice does not live and breathe on her own, but through our breath and our words. She is animate only by the marching of our feet and the raising of our hands. She thinks only as our hearts demand An avatar for what resides within the consciousness of the living, Justice is as we say, or not. In the absence of belief in the worth of ourselves, reflected on the faces of the lynched and starving, The forgotten and cast out, Justice rests while we remain asleep. Won’t you wake her?
Amanda Stone’s writing spans from children’s picture books to adult fiction to poetry. In 2019, she received the Writers of Kern Peggy Connelly Scholarship for her young adult fiction. When not working on her own projects, she provides online support for people struggling to reconnect with their creativity at www.weareawakenedcreators.com.
“Justice does not live and breathe on her own” – so much power in these words. Your poem empowers the reader.
Thank you Anke. We are far more powerful than we ever give ourselves credit for.
You said it. I feel it.
I’m not good at commentning on poems. They speak for themselves. Thanks.
Dianne, the fact that you felt it says everything. Lots of love.
Powerful! Truth hanging in the air says it so vividly!
Thank you Noel.