Prayer for Kenosha, Wisconsin

God, in the center of my heart
is Jacob Blake,
and then there is his family.
I pause there,
surrounding them
with all my hope and love.

I cannot rush on to
complications and issues,
people first.

I pray for those who died last night
and one in the hospital,
whose names I do not yet know.

I pray for families and friends
of black people who have died
from police violence
this year and in years past,
as each brutality immerses them
in grief, pain, PTSD.

I pray for Kenosha – hope, change,
peace, protest,
justice and jobs, rebirth.

And I pray for a possible miracle –
that this be the last town
where a black life
is broken or ended at the hands of police,

and that we would all know
the things that make for peace. amen.