Though Your Sins be as Scarlet
December, 1953
Freshman year at Oklahoma Baptist University
located in Shawnee, city named after first people’s
nation led by Tecumseh who died 140 years ago
in battle defending ancestral homeland from
occupation by Anglo-Saxon settler colonialists
Under darkening purple skies in Pontiac sedan,
our university evangelistic team drives to
Indian tuberculosis sanatorium
Icy north wind from Arctic blasts pink cheeks as we
step out of car parked on sanatorium asphalt lot
Blue-eyed preacher from Southern Baptist university
stands in cowboy boots before plate glass window
along blanched beige wall separating healthy
settler-colonial descendants from coughing
and wheezing indigenous inmates lying in
or sitting upon hospital beds
In warm, earnest tone, he assures those behind
dark brown eyes in Ghost Dance trance that
though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow through the precious
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
We stand upon the cold, concrete floor above
the moist, crimson soil of the state where
the Trail of Tears came to an end and sing,
“Just as I am without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me”
Oklahoma is from Choctaw words which mean Land of Red People
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE*
2000-pound bomb,
paid for by our tax dollars has
her name along with those
of the rest of her family
written on it,
levels
their Gaza City apartment building
Within debris shadows,
glimpse
of light emerges.
“When they shelled us with the second missile,
I woke up and was surrounded by rubble.
I realized that my leg had been cut off,
because there was blood and I had no leg.
“I tried to move it, but it wouldn’t move.
My father and mother were martyred.
My brother Mohammad and my sister Dalia also.
“I want someone to take me abroad,
to any country, to install a prosthetic leg,
to be able to walk like other people,
so that I can move and go out
and play with other kids.
“I want to become a doctor, like
those who treat us, so that
I can treat other children.
I only want one thing:
for the war to end.”
On December 17th,
shell in Israel tank gun
paid for by our tax dollars
with name of 12 year old girl
recovering in Gaza hospital
written on it,
is fired—
Peace be upon you,
Dunia Abu Mosen
May all who have witnessed
that little light of yours—
Let it shine
Let it shine
Let it shine
* From the news story, “Absolutely Unimaginable”: Children in Gaza Face Amputations Without Anesthesia, Death & Disease, DEMOCRACY NOW, DECEMBER 28, 2023
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