Seeds of Kindness…
…In a Time of Crisis
by
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I Can’t Breathe
For months a virus has been to blame
For the struggle to gain breath;
Now a new cause rears its ugly shame
As a policeman causes death.
The witnesses are shocked to see
A knee upon his neck,
The result of police brutality,
His breathing’s held in check.
Death is painful for George Floyd,
And for the witnesses looking on;
The policemen seem annoyed
That their victim’s breath is gone.
.
Demonstrations, understandably,
Spread all around the nation
To protest police brutality
Upon one of God’s Creations.
Memories are all to raw
Of Black Lives that didn’t matter
To enforcers of the law
Whose morals were in tatters.
Black victims were expendable,
It really didn’t matter
If evidence indefensible
Was served up on a platter.
The anger stoked by such unfairness
Touched Blacks and Whites the same;
Increasing the awareness
That Blacks are cops’ fair game.
Nothing short of a culture shift
Will bring about a peace;
Only forgiveness can heal the rift
That causes this disease.
Law enforcement everywhere
Must raise their consciousness,
With communities in joined prayer
As grievances are addressed.
Anger and rage are justified,
But are not the final answer.
Only forgiveness from every side
Can eradicate this cancer.
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About the Book
Kindness was a lesson worth learning as a child in the 1950s and 1960s—and it is more relevant than ever as the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest.
Jim Boeglin draws on the lessons he learned as a child and throughout adulthood to spread that message in this book of poetry.
Much of the collection was written during “shelter in place” restrictions in the spring and summer of 2020, which was also when protests raged throughout the United States to prevent racial injustice in the aftermath of the brutal murder of George Floyd.
It was a time of stress, sorrow, and pain in the world—especially for minorities, and the millions of coronavirus victims and the families of those infected. It was also a challenging time for first responders, health care workers, and others on the front lines of treatment.
Ponder the impact of being kind during a time of global crisis and plant seeds to spread positivity as you read this collection.
About the Author
The author and his bike at the Butterfly Gardens in Naples, Florida. Many of the Seeds of Kindness poems have grown and developed during solitary rides along the beautiful bikeways of Southwest Florida.