Below is a written piece to express in visceral terms injustice and to engage the depth of groaning I feel, see, and hear. It is my hope that you will find space for your own deep groans for justice and mercy in this creation.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22)

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

In this space and in this time, groans live in the deep, words fail, but groans express. Deep calls to deep, groans call to groans. So much and for so long, groan to groan until breath cannot be found. All of creation heard the small cry for Mama and the silence envelope the limp body. With knee still crushing and anger crescendoed “check his pulse!” People plead with passion speaking truth to deaf ears and crushing knees. Into the depths, he returns riding on the pain greeted with compassion by the beckoning deep. A shallow stirring rumbles and tumbles and stumbles across the surface filled with rage. Rubber bullets and tear gas attempts to quell the demands of the deep to make way for the dissatisfaction of preening with book in hand.

When will the deep be heard?! When will the deep be answered?! Softly, the groans cry for the centennials of souls’ lost. Lost to the rope and tree, lost to the torment, lost to the hatred. Deep calls to deep because only deep can resonate with the burning hearts carried by marching feet and kneeling prayers. Hope of change slices through the air as the earth joneses for justice and mercy for those revived with an unquenched thirst.

-Dianne Morgan