Martin King, Jr. by Definition
That was no dream you lived Martin
A dream is the thought of a person
in sleep
To dream is to think idly, be lazy
inactive, futile or trifling
That was no dream you lived
Your life was so much more
You were not a visionary
To be a visionary is to be unpractical
Imaginary, delusive
When people think of you
those are not the words that come to mind
You were the chosen child of God
one of the prophets sent to lead us
out of the dream state
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was real
racist murderers did not capitulate to
front-of-the-bus demands because they
loved the way you dreamed
The four little girls who died in the Alabama
church bombings didn’t wake the next
morning
to kiss their parents goodbye before going
off to school
Denise, Addie Mae, Carole and Cynthia’s
lives were stolen
innocence sucked into the
vortex of
shrapnel madness and Alabama pain
A Birmingham bloodbath
no dream
just the horror of memory
a putrid stain on the face of America
Your speech against the Vietnam War
was more than just a truth testimonial
written in napalm residue and blood
It was God guiding your hand giving you the
words to
awaken his children
opening your heart to
the concept of ‘woke’
No dream Martin
just you rising each morning to kiss the sun
following God’s marching orders
heeding the clarion call to the mountaintop
You never turned your back to the sun
embraced the dark
or faltered on the glory road to ascension
you were God’s liberating sword
His righteous warrior
God’s “King” of hearts
2023 © by Layding Lumumba Kaliba
Layding Lumumba Kaliba is an author, poetry editor, Poet Laureate of Harlem, and co-founder of the Linyak Project.
