Now is the time to bounce
And dive into the river
Of good trouble
Splashing waters of mission
Purpose upon the banks of apathy.
Knowing what must be done
And doing nothing about it,
Is like knowing the danger of drinking
Clorox water and yet gulping it down
With a smirking white-wash grin.
Basking in the heat rays of racism
Classifies you as a tar-baby runt
Of its burning fires of bigotry’s hell.
The legacy of those who have drowned
In the struggle against flowing oppression
Cannot be honored with tar-colored apathy.
Unaware of the Middle Passage beach shores
And the lynched-boned bottoms of blooded rivers,
What will weary wallowing souls tell the children
When asked how did you swim and not drown
the troubling waters of roaring oppression?
No longer can we misinterpret the scriptures:
“Wait and be of good courage…; for the cistern
Of good courage and its cup has long overflowed—
Now is the time to get into dripping good trouble!
So come my people, let’s wade in the waters.
God long ago troubled the oppressive waters!
And has anointed us to now buoy and prep
Our beloved royal sons and daughters: