By Johari Jabir.
Elegy for Sinead
(1966 – 2023)
every child has a dream,
like a hummingbird born to sing
everything god made is free,
everything like you and me
trouble don’t last always – Sinead.
hope to see you in the land of perfect day.
where every day is howdy howdy
never goodbye, and the mist is rolled away.
one day, like you, I’ll up and fly away.
don’t matter what the men-priests say.
I want to die easy, when I die, rather than live as a slave.
We ain’t got nothing to lose but these chains.
And now, dear sister,
may your eyes behold the mountains of paradise
may drink from the crystal fountain
I pray your soul finds peace in the bosom of Abraham.
dona ei requiem aeternam
your brother,
Johari Jabir
Johari Jabir (right) is an artist, scholar, and contemplative. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Johari is director of music at St. George & St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Chicago, IL, and he teaches in the department of Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. His first book, Conjuring Freedom: Music and Masculinity in the Gospel Army of the Civil War (Ohio State University Press, 2017), is a cultural history of the nation’s first Black regiment, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.
Radical Discipleship 
Oh, my gracious. Tears in the middle of my morning toast and coffee. Tears for the sadness that she lived through, for her loss, and for your achingly beautiful tribute.