To honor a dear friend who passed from this earth recently, a wife and mother, teacher and artist, an inspiration to many of the indelible link between justice and compassion.
I remember this thin wiry girl
hair braided back from the fire in her eyes
looking out with an unrelenting question
on the stubborn visage of injustice
demanding equal time in the sun
nourishment for the wild flowers
beside the rusted tracks of a long gone train.
She was a force to be reckoned with
more comfort to the hard luck hill jacks
than the elite through which she passed
her presence a singular virtue
discouraged at times but not deterred
walking in fire with the grace
of a street wise angel
seeing through the masks and misery
with a flaming promise to somehow
make art of us all.
