No Revolving Doors
by J. Joy "Sistah Joy" Matthews Alford

Ain’t no revolving doors on buses

At some point 

When we walk through life’s doors

We just know

We can’t turn back

There must've been a reason

Rosa Parks felt she was part

Of a season of change

Was the tired seamstress

Called by destiny?

Or were her actions

Part of a ploy by the NAACP?

Both may be partially true

But listen while I share with you

Something else that Rosa said

Besides, “My feet hurt,

I’m tired of giving in.’

Think about the times

She was livin’ in

And you’ll understand

How a young man’s murder

Just one hundred days before

Was more than her head

And heart could ignore 

I can feel her anguished spirit that day

Inside my soul I can hear her say

“I was just thinkin ‘bout young Emmett”

Must’ve taken her past her limit

Couldn’t leave that seat

Any more than he could leave that noose—

Or that river, or that casket

It was all just too much

So you see, the seat on that bus

Just wouldn’t let her go

It was only a matter of time

‘Til someone drew the line 

So Rosa made up her mind

If time and fines could pave the way

To a better day
“Then put me on the front line!”

Because the country, no the world

Had to understand

That a woman is not a girl

That a man, White or Black, is a man

It was time for the sheets

Of prejudice and bigotry to be lifted

Time for a nation so richly gifted

To show that the grace and bounty

Showered upon it by God
Were deserved