“God’s going to use you to do big things one day.”

She said, smiling face and popped knuckles, the psalmist mother

warming her vocals

before she hit me, weeks before

—— decades later,

I stood with God’s promised children, bowing and fighting

my head in prayer; the young drunk, a fellow wretch

a black man surrounded by my brothers

sought to go and move on, to

fall back to the earth—— and had I

focused on her knuckles I

could’ve dodged the punch; maybe

swung, or sung something to make the hate go away—— a chorus of “I’m human with you, please”

but I wouldn’t have ran after that man

who deep down wonders if I hate him

when deep down I wonder if he hates

me—— to show him my tears, my heart

and said to him, for God said to me

“God’s going to use you to do big things one day

And I know that things are hard right now

Things are going to get worse

and then they’ll be better

You’ve just got to hold on

for tomorrow is coming

And when the sky falls;

I will be there for you

I will be there for you

because I love you

I love you because

God loves us “