We don’t need just any prayer

White bodies need an anti-racist prayer

We need an anti-racist prayer 

that punches with the force of a million curled biceps

inhabits space like a murmuration of warrior hummingbirds

White folks need an anti-racist prayer that makes the impossible seem possible

wakes us

shakes us

makes us sing

then makes us 

listen deep 

and wide 

a thousand deer cocking heads in unison

still but not frozen

silent, listening 

ready to respond 

We need hymns 

that make visions of collective liberation swirl like celebratory bonfire smoke

up into hopes and visions

down onto exposed skin

floating into our lungs

and the back of our skulls

infiltrating our dreams

We need spider web prayers of commitment 

woven together with rain droplets 

sparkling in morning light

whispering: 

can you feel bodies before there was this thing called whiteness 

can you feel their struggle in your bones 

can you feel their resistance to domination vibrating in each and every one of your cells

can you feel them, our ancestor accomplices roaring in your bloodstream

invisible to western scientific eye 

necessary for revolutionary hearts

And if we listen

like a thousand deer

with clear-minded right-sized intention 

they will tell us:

stand up

unfreeze,

chest to the sun

face to the sky

They will ask us to sing

and we will sing.

We don’t need just any prayer

White bodies need an anti-capitalist prayer

We need an anti-capitalist prayer

that shoulder rolls colonial intellectualism 

hip checks academia

White bodies need an anti-capitalist prayer

that can slingshot expert-izing culture into the stratosphere

elbow strike a wide path into collective history 

We need an anti-capitalist prayer 

that roundhouse kicks inequity

foot stomps expansion and extraction 

makes curiosity reflexive 

like a flinch 

We need an anti-capitalist prayer that 

shouts out white supremacy target points 

so accomplices know where to direct radical love and protective shields of compassion

White folks need an anti-capitalist prayer 

songs shattering institutions and systems

shards showering down 

slicing manifest destiny and market forces into 

tiny 

sparkling

obsolete 

dazzling

pieces. 

sing.

We don’t need just any prayer

White bodies need an anti-fascist prayer

an anti-fascist prayer that is 

fast like tornado

brilliant like wind

able to infiltrate like dandelion tuffs 

fluttering airborne in a summer night breeze

nimble like snowflakes 

solid 

a frozen lake

impenetrable

petrified wood

An anti-fascist prayer 

sneaky like fog

tenacious like hurricane 

insidious like native weeds  

rooting into our bloodstreams and into our soil

climbing over walls 

smothering barriers in verdant vines

gripping 

loving arms 

layering dirt with falling leaves 

sweet sulfur compost 

reduction of dried, dying yard waste of white supremacy

We will plant

We will grow

And we will sing.