Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks
So many heroes and yet ...
Every year I post a poem written to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday and honor all that he gave us and to also honor Rosa Parks and all the brave people who gave so much to the fight for equality. Heroes all.
And yet, on official orders, men, doing their jobs, just watched a mother and two children drown. Was it because they were brown? How far will evil spread before we cry out enough!?
Joyce Wycoff, ©2024
upon hearing more of the story ...
perhaps no one watched
it was just a radio call about distress
people without faces,
a macho dispute over territory
seized by a power deprived man
blind to lives on the other side,
deaf to the cries of the powerless.
not me,
not my job,
just following orders,
this way to the trains.
Such powerful writing Joyce, a reminder of the need to keep working for justice regardless of how tired and comfortable we are where we set. Thank you for waking us up again.