Ode to Archbishop Desmond Tutu

You laughed before man
And wept before God
For innocent lives lost
During apartheid years
You wept before the commission
Reconciling the human cost of apartheid
Reconciling the inhumanity of humanity

You preached in synagogue
And joked in street dialogue
You offered supplications
For sons and sisters of Soweto
You preached social justice
In face of apartheid power
In higher echelons, in towers
Your arms of embrace
Knew no creed nor race

You were a brave man
Of words and deeds
A garden without weeds
A brave man who silenced a crowd
An angry and loud crowd
At a funeral
Lynching a suspected informer
An enemy of the people
You pleaded for calm
And recited a psalm
Of forgiveness of enemy
And sanctity of life
Of the suspected informer
Facing the crowd’s ire
And the angry, sharp knife
You faced the flaming pyre

Farewell, Archbishop Tutu
A torch of love
To light up our paths
Through darkness and dawn