by Sheria Reid
He came bearing dreams,
a drum major for truth,
peeling back layers to reveal
the beauty of our blackness.
Mama says I can't go to Selma,
so I find it on a map,
a small dot that may as well be in Timbuktu.
Montgomery is out of the question.
I march around the back yard
singing "We Shall Overcome,"
imagining that I feel the heat rising
from black pavement
and the hoses washing me down.
We shall overcome someday...
Let's play freedom march!
Slyly I entice my younger brother and sister.
You can lead the march!
But my legs are longer.
I follow him
marching ever onward,
a dark skin black child
reaching for the dream,
believing deep in my heart
we shall overcome
we shall overcome
we shall overcome someday...
A lovely, fitting tribute that says it all. Dr King touched so many lives, his influence resounding even today so many years later. He and the civil rights movement had a profound effect on me that shaped my attitude towards others and how I viewed the world around me. I am ever grateful for his profound influence in my life as I think it has made me a better person than I otherwise might have been.
ReplyDeleteThank you for Sheria for such a sweet poem. A lovely eye-opener with my morning coffee. It’s nice that Obama’s inauguration came on MLK Jr. weekend three years ago. We went out whaling that day on a copy of a historic sailboat, the Spirit of America that used to race out to the edge of the New York Harbor over one hundred years ago to meet incoming trading vessels before wireless was invented. Then the Martin Luther King Choir of San Diego sang at our church. We were riding high.
ReplyDeleteToday, after so much hatred has been spewed, it is tempting to say that little progress has been made. I disagree with that point of view. There will always be a marginalized corner of society. That corner is getting smaller every day. It is tempting to say that Dr. King was somehow overrated. Maybe. He certainly didn’t work alone, although he was a wonderful and tireless leader. Surely he wasn’t the only person who paid with his life. But his impact really can’t be underestimated. He caused us all to examine our own consciousnesses. This, in turn, paved the way for greater acceptance of other persecuted classes of people. Tolerance for all races and immigrants. Learning to love each other and work together. Civil rights for women, LGBT. The repeal of DADT. We continue our forward momentum as a nation.
I leave you with Dr. King’s reflections on the Viet Nam war from 1967 which may be heard on the video, "Martin Luther King Jr., a Man of Peace in a Time of War." Words more relevant today than when they were spoken.
In our collective lives, our sin rises to even greater heights. See how we treat each other. Races trample over races; nations trample over nations. We go to war and destroy the values and the lives that God has given us. We leave the battlefields of the world painted with blood, and we end up with wars that burden us with national debts higher than mountains of gold, filling our nations with orphans and widows, sending thousands of men home psychologically deranged and physically handicapped... This is the tragic plight of man... So long as he lives on the lower level he will be frustrated, disillusioned and bewildered... Western civilization, like the prodigal son, has strayed away to the far country of segregation and discrimination. You have trampled over sixteen million of your brothers... In the midst of all your material wealth, you are spiritually and morally poverty-stricken, unable to speak to the conscience of this world.
That's a quote I'd like to see engraved in stone and on the walls of congress and the White House. Words like that are his true monument and you don't have to travel to Washington to see them.
ReplyDeleteExcellent poetry, Sheria. Here's wishing a fine MLK Jr. Day to everyone!
ReplyDeleteThank you for that poem, Sheria. A fitting tribute to a true national hero.
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