DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Any American reference book will read you the same premise… “DR. Martin Luther King, Jr. (born January 15, 1929, died April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.” We know the story. But have we ever taken a moment to understand the human being buried beneath the legend and the indelible imprint he has left on who WE are now?

“Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

It is from such a preface I sat to write a poem that sprung from a deep restless place in my belly during the thick of this current climate of unrest in my country. Fueled by a general discontent as I witness how far backward we have flung ourselves from all of the invaluable lessons we already learned —lessons that Dr. King himself taught us—this literary offering is a pure and somber one. It is my hope that our readers will hear the message it carries and think on what it truly means for them. For all of us.

How do you sum up a life that has set so many others in motion —that before their conception would change the course of every reality against all odds and the powers that be?

How do we crown our modern saints, laud and raise and name them when their armor is a common man’s clothes, a pen and microphone their sword, and their martyrdom cheapened by newspaper ink and public disregard?

Who are these that follow in big footsteps? These masses that gather and cry out the same cries uttered in scribbled speeches tucked once in a modest pocket— words that would alchemize an entire movement which would come to be the fight of our lives?

How do we honor a hero fallen when there is no honor to be found?

Not here, not here and not now…

Not now when the black man is murdered by police and dismissed as “accident”. Not now when Jew and Palestinian bite and claw and are overlooked, disregarded, enticed and exploited under the banner of yet another Genocide.

Not now when children are held in border cages, when presidents play golf over hills of bodies our taxes helped to pay for… not now when our schools have become shooting ranges and guns are wielded by hands too small to carry them.