Questions Of Conscious Poem by W.I. Stoneberger

How can those of us
who have our rights - civil and human,
not feel not reach
not speak for those who have none
for those who have been denied?

Does silence not speak for us?
Does indifference not make a difference
to those who ask for support for help?
Is color a crime? Is country? Is creed?
Is having a thought a voice
a reason for torture for death?
Are we not all guilty?

Are children who pray for change,
who try to learn and grow
beyond the bind and boundaries, criminals?
Do they deserve to be picked off in the streets
for singing songs that hope for more?
And do their fathers and mothers
deserve to be taken away
to disappear for trying to protect them
for trying to hold their broken bodies together
for trying to raise them up higher
for trying to give them rainbows
and beams of sunlight?