"Amen "

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 twenty-second 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.

Amen — Let the church say Amen,  for today, the sun sings her name—  Kamala, first to crown this land with a heritage braided in roots and spice,  a woman born of tides and tongues,  where Black meets Brown, meets the broken, meets the bold,  and this soil, now fertile with her rise,  cries out in the voices of those who knew this day would come,  yet feared they wouldn't see it.

Let the country say Amen,  as history is carved anew in the bones of the Republic,  the ink still wet with the sweat of ancestors who prayed and bled,  who whispered freedom into the ears of a tomorrow unseen.  Today, they dance in the halls of power,  their feet light, their hearts heavy with joy  for the daughter of dusk and dawn,  whose voice breaks the chains that still echo in these fields.

We march, forward and never back,  holding hands with ghosts and gods,  our steps steady, our eyes wide to the light and love  that pour from this dawn, this new day,  where justice is a hymn, sung by all,  and the future blooms in the hands of a woman  who knows what it means to carry the weight of a nation’s hope.

Let the country say Amen,  for we are all witnesses to the impossible made real,  and today, the earth is softer, the sky more kind,  for a new day has begun in America,  and the ancestors, they smile today—  history made flesh, marching forward,  never back.

©️MustafaSantiagoAli

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