It’s now Sarah Collins RudolphsTime

Time is something
everybody shares
Time after time
of course time waits for no one
it can and it helps us climb
it tears pieces out of all of us
and soulfully can blot
sometimes in us, it festers though
it helps that we are not
forgetful of its energies
for the pages that we turn
can help us and can love us
but can heighten our concern

Time marches on
its now 50 years
some scars are healed, but she
has inward scars
so deep that they may never
ever be
erased from her
sweet spirit
as she watched her best friends
slain
cut down in those vile ribbons
of blood and awful pain

the hatred that
was Birmingham
the world chose to forget
forgot it, let it fester on
in her it was set
this one sweet girl survivor
spent the last 50 years
living with those memories
and those ongoing fears

tears and woeful thoughts
they filled her every waking hour
the world though just forgot her
time though has that power
Today we need to honour her
why today, we be
sharing just a little of that
awful agony

when the KKK burst in on her
and blew them all away
when Birmingham was caught
up in such hatred and dismay
when the sweet picture of Jesus
was smashed to kingdom come
and shards were then embedded
in her leaving her quite numb

all these years that agony
those memories will be
with her till her dying day
those faces that debris
those evil men whose hatred
boiled over on that day
and in that house of god
those innocent girls
were blown away

the world chose to forget her
Sarah she became
a cleaner working all hours
at 62 the same
laborious work she has to do
to keep herself alive
and the world must now consider
her and help her to survive

retire her to a place
where she can benefit and be
able to pay the medical bills
a lot more easily
Birmingham forgot her
Birmingham alas
the people there affected
by time and its morass

America forgot her
they let her soldier on
working morning noon and night
although her spirit shone
they taxed her, and they left her
in the shadows let her be
forgot her like so many others
who had bright eyes to see

we hear we know her agony
and need to help her through
what has been 50 years
of hell and high water yes all through
and so we come together now
to imagine and to try
and offer her retirement
and some peace under the sky
time its time to remember her
time its time to care
time its time to show some love
for us to be aware
just a little something
from everyone will do
it will help dear Sarah Collins Rudolph
truthfully make it through