When hope is extinguished

Jeremiah 31:15-17

Thus says the Lord:

A voice is heard in Ramah,

lamentation and bitter weeping.

Rachel is weeping for her children;

she refuses to be comforted for her children,

because they are no more.

Thus says the Lord:

Keep your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears;

for there is a reward for your work,

says the Lord:

they shall come back from the land of the enemy;

there is hope for your future,

says the Lord:

your children shall come back to their own country.

A mother weeping for her children

Is there a sound more anguished?

The dry, hacking sobs

Or the full throated wail

Piercing the blackness

And rippling on

Breaching every barrier

Pulsing in every wavelength

Shaking the foundations

Of democracy and justice

There is no justice

For a mother whose arms are empty

No justice for a family and community in mourning

There is no justice for law enforcement

Charged with power 

Yet broken to the core

And all the splinters

And all the fragments

Cannot rise up and be healed

For the victims slain alongside a mother's child

Are hope and integrity and truth.

Today - refuse to be comforted

For justice is no more.

Maybe, just maybe tomorrow

We can look towards healing the brokenness

And salvaging some kind of peace 

But today let the noise of that wailing

Seep into your very fibre

And convict you

Of the travesty

That is a life not valued 

And justice broken beyond repair