MULBERRY STREET TO DEXTER AVENUE by Jennifer Susan Smith

MULBERRY STREET TO DEXTER AVENUE by Jennifer Susan Smith

Whitewash blood-soaked balcony,

on the motel's second story.

retrieve the misplaced necktie,

its knot ripped apart,

from walkway's concrete cold.

refashion its shattered print.

drape it around the collar of an

unstained dress shirt, white as

mourning florals edged in red.

Silence the sirens of Memphis.

restride through Room 306's door.

finish the ashtray's partial cigarette,

as smoke puffs dissipate bloodshed,

disguise hatred's horror. repack luggage

with first-year pastor's suits and sermons.

depart Mulberry Street, past Lorraine's

turquoise sign, skyward to Montgomery,

southeast, toward Dexter Avenue steeple.

How many miles must you fly to reach

the church by sunrise? How many steps

must you march to see spire reach sun?

stand in the Baptist pulpit, posture erect,

just after plane touches down, as arches

of colored glass windows admit morning

light, imbuing glory onto pews, engraining

their wood with a dream.

author's note: a reversal poem in response to personal photographs. Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church Montgomery, Alabama July 2018, Lorraine Motel Memphis, Tennessee March 2019

Jennifer Susan Smith, a retired speech-language pathologist, resides in northwest Georgia. Jennifer's writing is published in The Mildred Haun Review, The Bluebird Word, WELL READ Magazine, and San Antonio Review, among others. She is chairman of Alpha Delta Kappa Pages and Pearls Book Club, and holds membership in Chattanooga Writers' Guild.