The Fire He Left Us I came from quiet rooms From stories trimmed and clean Where history had endings And no one asked what they mean Then I heard your voice, James Baldwin Clear and unafraid Not cruel, not comforting Just honest in the way You didn’t hate this country You loved it far too much To let it keep pretending Or soften what was touched You stood where love and fury meet Where truth refuses rest You lived your life out loud And taught us silence costs the best Not everything that’s faced can change But nothing changes if we hide You said it plain You said it true You said it looking straight inside You wrote with fire So we could see You named the wound And stayed with me You wrote with fire So we could see That love is work And freedom bleeds You crossed the ocean to breathe again Still turned your eyes back home Carried grief and mercy both Like they were made of bone You warned us innocence is thin When justice isn’t named That history keeps knocking When we look away You wrote with fire So we could see The lie beneath the dream The truth beneath the skin You wrote with fire So we could see That love is action Not a feeling Not a flag I was a girl who didn’t know Where I stood inside it all You broke my certainty in half And taught my heart to listen first Then stand Then speak Then choose The fire you carried Still lights the way
