SOUL LIBERTY
Today be the birthday of granddaughter Sophie
the Bangladeshi-American.
Her Baba became a citizen
in 2017. They’re just as American as you & me.
We made a covenant of equality
before God, long ago.
African-Americans know
how long it took to become just barely free,
not to say equal before the law
in this blood-soaked country.
It begins with soul liberty –
thumbprint of human dignity. We saw
how Roger stood alone against the weight
of Boston magistrates,
to separate a faith’s dictates
from common civil rights – & shape a state
of openness, of global mutuality
– planted in equity,
grounded equality –
premonition of a new reality
emerging like a dream rose island
from an imagined Providence
(Roger’s capacious sense
of Edward Coke’s law-learned hand).
Sophie, dancing image of an unseen grace,
child of the universe
sprung up in Minneapolis,
take hold of your inheritance – one hopeful place.
8.21.19
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