Martin Luther King

I've posted this poem before and I will again on the occasion of celebrating MLK's birthday.

I had a dream the other night

   and Martin Luther King was there.

He spoke in tones befit the wise

   and asked me if I’d share,

the news of how his dream came out,

   since he had been away.

I told him times had changed somewhat,

   but the dream was still a dream

and somewhere in these many years

   was progress, or so it seemed.

Tell me, he said, what has happened,

   since he had been away.

We’ve legislated out the hate,

   I said, but laws can’t touch the mind,

if bias reeks within the heart

   there cannot be a human - kind.

It’s still not true, he said,

   for he had been away.

And then he said, where he is now,

   there is no ONE color bright,

not black or white, yellow or brown.

   There is only a loving light.

It’s the truth I lived, and live,

   he said, as he went away.