Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 82th in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
God, are you listening? I sit here, pen trembling against paper, the dark folding around me like grief’s unyielding arms. “Life be lifin,” they say, but no one told me it would twist like this— a phone call at dawn, my brother’s name laced with the weight of finality.
I shout into the universe, my voice ricocheting off walls too distant to hold me. I beg for a do-over, for the kind of mercy you promise in scriptures worn soft by touch. But silence answers back, its sharp edges cutting through my prayers.
He was a good one— a father who planted his love in every seed of his children, a friend who carried the burdens of others even when they broke his own back. He lived without malice, never letting a negative word stain his tongue. Just peace. Just love. Just a man who held the world’s chaos and offered it kindness.
God, I’m checking to see if you’ve heard me, if my cries have reached wherever heaven is. He was your child, wasn’t he? The embodiment of your lessons, the echo of your teachings made flesh. Why take him now? Why now, when his light was the very thing we needed to find our way?
Too young to leave, too good to lose, and yet, here I am, writing into the abyss, grasping for answers in the emptiness.
Do you hear me? Because I’m still here, holding his name in my mouth like a prayer I refuse to let die.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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