Tuesday, January 17, 2006

I have a dream

‘Not an original title: I have a dream’ timothy r. gates, 01/16/2006

Red and Yellow, Black and White,
of course the other blends too,
shaven heads, afro-heads, died, bald, dreadlocks,
more hues than I know to paint,
Feminists, SDS’s, Hippies, Black Panthers,
cassock wearing priests and monks,
collard clergy, tie and suit wearing ones too,
Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed Jews,
Hindus, Buddhists, American New Agers too,
Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants,
Moslems, and…
Gnostics, Agnostics, Theists, Atheists, Pantheists, Animists,
Polytheists, non-Theists, Creationists, and Evolutionists…
People marched.
Martin spoke out in front of the White House,
a romantic,
praying aloud for an epiclesis,
‘Come down Holy Spirit,’
these white folks and black folks,
Jews and Christians, Moslems and…
Women, Men and Children
no longer will they know war.

-What does happen when we beat swords into ploughshares?
-If you haven’t learned to farm, do they revert to weaponry?
-Why aren’t wealthy accused murderers sitting on death row?
-Why do men judges and lawyers still allow rapists and pedophiles free?
-Why do they still think these violations are sex crimes?
-Why are there still abortions when birth control is readily available?
-Why are representatives in a Democratic Republic career politicians?
-If people free to vote do not vote, are they free?

Martin’s march on Washington was not a road trip.
White folk and coloured folk got the shit beat out of them, I remember,
we called each other brothers and sisters.
Three white boys were murdered for registering black voters,
Nigger was a common word from Whites
-Why is it now a common word from Blacks?

In the North, I heard,
‘Son, now, some of our best friends are black people.’
My naïve response, ‘Why haven’t any of them ever been over to dinner,’
was not received fondly.
After I picked myself off of the floor,
I understood the meaning of the phrase ‘Northern White Liberal’.
And, GYFHOM.

The Cross, David’s Star, the Ankh, icons beat into jewelry,
-Why do we call it ‘Jew-elry’ instead of Buddhary?
-When did the ACLU and the GOP become two sides of the same coin?

Believers and non-believers marched together,
Singing songs of freedom,
Some religious tunes, some folk, some spirituals,
Some of the people only hummed.
-Why do the same folk today want to stop the mouths of the other?

Unknowing prophets and prophetesses,
reaffirming the dignity of all people and all.
The flight of the northern geese flying back home, today,
shitting over the White House,
would be front page news.
-How funny would it be if the career politicians were all sitting on its lawn?

-If we cease to dream are we present?
-Why are dreamers cursed for their failure?
-Does God dream?

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