Walking through the crowd with your backpacks
surrounded by happy people on race day,
you weave your way purposefully
down the street
around the corner,
you know where you are going.
I want to reach out
from my vantage point on high
I want to call you by name so you look
I would reach out and put a hand on your cheek
like your mother
I would look in your eyes
looking for the good boy,
I would hold that gaze
What I wouldn’t give
to turn you around
and send you home.
Put those backpacks away.
Take those things apart.
What are you thinking?
I would lay it out for you
show you the cost
the weight of human suffering
the broken bodies families hearts
the backlash the anger
more hatred spewing
and not out there but here
(and I would place my hand on your heart)
you will lose something vital
As you walk with your caps
and your heavy backpacks
what I wouldn’t give to stop you
stop this endless loop of you
walking the wrong way again and again
to the finish line.
Is it never finished?
I am a Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. I’ve served congregations in Ontario and most recently, Alberta.