In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.

BY JUNE JORDAN

I

honey people murder mercy U.S.A.   

the milkland turn to monsters teach   

to kill to violate pull down destroy   

the weakly freedom growing fruit   

from being born

America

tomorrow yesterday rip rape   

exacerbate despoil disfigure   

crazy running threat the   

deadly thrall

appall belief dispel

the wildlife burn the breast   

the onward tongue

the outward hand

deform the normal rainy   

riot sunshine shelter wreck

of darkness derogate

delimit blank

explode deprive

assassinate and batten up

like bullets fatten up

the raving greed

reactivate a springtime

terrorizing

death by men by more

than you or I can

STOP

       II

They sleep who know a regulated place

or pulse or tide or changing sky

according to some universal   

stage direction obvious   

like shorewashed shells

we share an afternoon of mourning   

in between no next predictable

except for wild reversal hearse rehearsal   

bleach the blacklong lunging

ritual of fright insanity and more

deplorable abortion

more and

more