'Martin Luther King's Dream' timothy r gates, 5/08/2012

listening to younger people
do their slams,
competing for a second's prominence
poetic rhythms, often still rhyming
(go figure),
i ask myself,

'what happened to Martin's dream?'
people of darker hues,
as well as those of near white shades
decrying the lack of freedom,
not able to see the difference
between now
and when Martin's clarion call was
begrudgingly heard.
Yes, there's much more to do –
please note what is different today:
people of colour run businesses with all hues working for them
women are now part of the once only big old boys club of D.C.
Conservative WASPs now include Catholics, Jews, some Muslims and Atheists
Gay people don't need to introduce their partners as their uncle, aunt, or cousin
managers to owners of business include all the above - they often are jerks just like those before them
once a Catholic was thought unlikely to become president – today a person of all hues is president.
Yes, there's more to be done –
Martin's Dream was one of One:
As long as we refer to a colour or hue of skin defining 'my people'
the only freedom is superficial
As long as we refer to gender defining strengths or weaknesses for leadership
misogyny and misandry are alive and well
As long as we refer to Gay as a way to claim a normal place in the line
happy is yet to be known as normal.
Listening to these younger Poets,
i hear their voice,
today their voice is not hidden, disregarded, trivialized
i hear that they do not
know more than their own experience
(like me, or those of my time when we were them) –
these Poets happen to be people of all pigmentations, gender, heritage, religion and lifestyles –
things have changed!
Yet, i am reminded,
as long as we march, chanting under our plethora of race banners
(why not, One race, One people, One aim?)
things have not changed as much as it appears.
“I have a Dream” has yet to be We have a Dream:
Peace – Namaste - Ký-ri-e, e-lé-i-son – Mercy

_______________________________________________


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

===================================

So, how does the dream become more?

    My younger children do not refer to their friends using their skin hue, religion, politics, sexual lifestyles, or even gender as adjectives. EXCEPT when someone dismisses one of their friends due to something like these things.

This is where I DO see some or Martin's Dream, or the Dream of the Gospel where there is 'neither Jew or Greek/Pagan, or male or female, enslaved or free, but one in Christ,' or the Dream of Mecca of all people being one of prayer (what caused the murder of M X because of his beholding this beauty), or the Dream of Israel's Hill of G-D, where all nations are priests of G-D. or the Dream of people see the 'Beauty that will save the world' - Dostoevsky, 'the idiot.' It is only a non-reality for those of us wanting to hold on to the past's failure or success, or the future's never will. The Dream is always known = now.