Brave Souls

Not long ago were the days of the Divide of unconscionable prejudice and senseless hate. There were but a few Brave Souls in the crowd of the contained and the fearful. They knew it wasn't just or right or fair and they stood up. They faced nooses, fires, guns, pure, unadulterated hate, danger and humiliation. And they felt the burn-- they felt it. And The Others, they cursed them under their breath, a sharp dirty whisper. And they cursed them through the T.V., outraged at such discord. And they cursed them face to face loud and angry, muttering a demoralizing, dehumanizing, disgusting two-syllable word. They burned books, they passed laws, and they swore things would be kept clean, tidy, separate the way it should be. And they said, not today, not tomorrow-- not ever. But The Brave Souls, they kept climbing. And they shouted and marched and screamed for change and soon the whole world could hear them and tomorrow came. That day they kissed their children and cheered. They dropped their kids at school among the light-skinned and the dark, and they reveled in their victory. But they still remember.