Written for Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Daniel Kelly – September 2020

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Ruth was born in New your City, in 1933,
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Daughter of Jewish immigrants, they nicknamed her Kiki,
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Inspired by her mother, to seek the skills she was denied,
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But before Ruth finished highschool, cancer took Cecila’s pride,

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So Ruth became, Notorious,
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Aware of the injustice,
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That defined a woman’s life,
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She fought against the system,
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For eighty-seven years,
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No-one is more worthy of our tears,

Ruth enrolled at Harvard, ’56 in the fall,
In a class of 500 hundred men, of 9 women she stood tall,
The Dean of Law demanded, why she took the place of a man?
When she graduated first in ’59, it proved that women can.

It was while Ruth was in Sweden, she saw another way,
That a land built on in-equality, didn’t have to stay,
She had fought on 300 cases, by nineteen seventy four,
Of six fought in the Supreme Court, she won five but wanted more.

In 93 Ruth rose, to the nation’s highest court,
Every woman gained, from the equality she brought,
To New Zealand she swore to move, if Trump ever took power,
But she fought cancer and misogyny until her final hour.

By Daniel Kelly 2020

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Since they shot young Medgar Evers,
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Way back in 63’
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To be a black man in America,
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Is to never truly be free,

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There are blessings we take for granted,
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To be respected by the law,
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To be taken at the strength of our word,
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Instead of the clothes we wore,

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You can’t fight fire with fire,
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Then everything just burns,
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With the hate rising higher and higher,
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Madness is all we earn,  

George Floyd may not have been perfect,
He had even done some time,
But he was father of two daughters,
and not guilty of a crime,

For a bill of twenty-dollars,
The shop owner thought was fake,
George died on the ground,
with a knee in his neck,
His life wasn’t theirs to take
 
There is silence from the White House,
Except for the threat of a gun,
No sign of reconciliation,
Just more death when the fighting is done,

I remember there was a President,
It seems so long ago,
Whose voice it rang out in Amazing Grace,
Compassion he knew how to show,