Losing One’s Voice

After all the years of struggle
To find the power in one’s voice
A sincere and brutal point of view
To lay it down and make a choice

To tell it like you see it
Without concession or restraint
To reveal the way things are
To expose the things that ain’t

There are people who empower
A dissenting point of view
To say and do the things
No one else will say or do

A voice without a platform
Is like an echo in the night
Like a song without a singer
Or a seer without sight

We have lost a great ally
The one who let us sing
We sorrow for her loved ones
May her winter turn to spring

(for Angie Tibbs of Dissident Voice)