Much is being made about what lives matter

Using a system that’s color based

Much like a Pantone Matching System for humans

 

A system of color chips that determine your place in society

 

For life

 

One that accurately predicts your chances of an unnatural death

 

Deep, saturated colors of despair with few highlights of hope

 

Mixed with the horrors of deep-seated conflicts 400 years in the making


Words of hope on banner and board, brilliant colors with promise of healing

and resolution that might come today

 

Please… why not today?

 

Colorful threads woven into the fabric of our everyday

 

Everywhere

 

In the world

 

It’s the one thing we all have in common

 


Every country, every culture has their tartan, their homespun,

their weave generations in the making

 

Too much pigment in your skin

Or, too little

 

Too much eyelid, nose or hip

 

Too much fill-in-the-blank

 

Though all the proper words have been spoken from pulpit and podium

 

And all the proper words have been in newspapers and blogs

 

Still, so many have not read or heard

Still, the old coding in minds and hearts wins the day

 

Being so comfortable and committed, the shawl woven by their tribe

wrapped tightly around their shoulders

 

This is their reality and their truth

 

As long as there is a different thread woven into the row below them

 

Dragging on the ground, frayed and filthy with the daily wear

 

Until it gets to them.