Lone Star Elegy

POETRY FOR INCLUSION

Oleksandr/Adobestock

Where there was water, danger lurked nearby,
flooding with speed, roaring with force,
with no sign of changing course.

When terror cried and freedom died,
silence flowed down a river of red,
searching for a divine bed.

What are we to think? What are we to pray,
when the song sparrow is mute and
the thrill of life has perished,
that souls once cherished.

Where there is grief, comfort follows,
streaming through hearts, flowing from heaven, giving thanks for a camp of leavens.

When the darkness fades, and the bluebonnets bloom,
a lone star will shine, lighting up the skies, to heal Kerr county’s cries.

Frank A. Clark, MD

Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric Times^TM.