Revive the Dream (Superstars)

Sean Michael, December 2014

Malcolm X had a vision!
Martin Luther King had a dream!
Now, listen, my brothers!
This is the truth!

This little white boy from the heart of poverty,
I have a dream too!
It’s not black for black
or brown for brown.
It’s not white for white.

It’s a rainbow of oppression overcome.
A promise like the promise God made:
To stop the gang violence
To stop the Dope Dealing
To end the hate
To end the silence
To start the healing
To change our fate

          Don’t squeeze that trigger
Don’t kill your brother
It’s the truth I’m after.
I hear the laughter of the cops
as another body drops.
I hear the laughter of the white collar
as confusion doesn’t stop.
As we run around the hood like chickens
with our heads cut off.

You might say I’m “soft,”
but what is “hard?”
Hard is to win the hand with these fucked up cards,
this motley hand at birth we’ve been dealt.
If the government won’t help,
it’s time we help ourselves
by learning to love one another.
“We can never go nowhere until
we learn to share with each other.”
That’s right, Pal!
Dead now, but living proof!

Hey, youngster! Stop and look inside yourself before
you decide to shoot:
Take off that color
Forget that street
Untwist those fingers
And he’s just like you!

What they label us,
that’s not who we are.
Look inside yourself
And you just might find
You’re a superstar!

 

Posted for  dVerse Poets, Open Link Night #152, July 23, 2015