Poem

Love Your Neighbor

‭

Maybe I am too optimistic,
But I am still looking
For the Peace dove at the border.
I still believe He can find us,
Somewhere at the intersection of tolerance and hostility
Things aren’t as simple as they used to be.
Hate chased love out of the ring long ago.
Fire is fought with more gasoline
And people campaign to burn peacefully
But we just can’t do that anymore
Not in this climate,
Not in this drought.
Something in me really believes
That we all make this
Harder than it is supposed to be.
Why are we so scared of
A different prayer?
A different voice?
A different choice?
But, fear.
It’s still there, isn’t it?
Even though our neighbor
Lives on the same street as us,
If they do not look like us,
Or talk like us, or speak like us,
They must not meet the conditions.
Even though we shake the hands
of the brokenhearted within our congregation,
Those on the other side of political lines
Must be the exception to our handouts.
Maybe you can love without
Hand-shaking, small-talk-making,
Inviting over to lunch, celebrating.
Maybe you can love without
Weeping, breaking the silence,
Ending the side-eye glancing,
And under-the-breath commentary.
Maybe we can love without all of this.
Maybe we can love without
A sacrifice.
Maybe Jesus
Just did not understand
The definition of love.
But maybe He did.
Maybe all this was precisely
What he expected
When he created humankind
And saw all of our differences,
And yet he put no exceptions
On the greatest commandment:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Full-stop.
The business man, the immigrant,
The cashier,
the street-corner-dweller,
the protester, the down and out,
The ones who look like you,
And especially the ones who don’t.
The democrat, the waitress,
The liar, the cop, the loser,
The ones on the bottom,
And the ones at the top
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Full-stop.
This is the love that turns our
drought into a baptism.
This is the love that turns our
Shaky voices into a battle cry.
This is the kind of love that turns us
into living sacrifices.
Though there is a chasm of fear here,
There is also a symphony of community.
And with each resolution,
The foundations shake.
With each reparation,
The chasm shrinks.
Though they may keep us apart for now,
These borders cannot contain this song:
Love your neighbor as yourself,
Full-stop.

Chelsea Colley

WINCHESTER BLACK HISTORY
AND HERITAGE COMMITTEE

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