On King’s Dream

MLK Day and the Reckoning We Keep Avoiding

Photo by Taylor Brandon on Unsplash

Is this day just a day off?
A day to gloss over—
or should we remember
what this man stood for,
why it mattered,
how we have failed
to learn from his words?

Was he just a fortune cookie,
a bubblegum machine of quotes?
A pacifist with no true message?
A feel-good messiah?

Or was he so much more?

On this day of reckoning,
many circle his teachings—
ashamed of our lack,
ashamed of our country
and its persistence in othering.

Its insatiable thirst for more.
Its unconquerable quest for power.
Its bottomless hunger for money.

While Black and brown bodies
just want to live.
While many white bodies
also just want to live—

with love,
with hope,
with a future.

Not to serve masters
or wannabe dictators,
or cosplaying Nazis
and slave patrols.

Where patriotism means
pride in community—
our whole community.

Where commitment is to each other
and to the shared world we inhabit.

Where we seek better
for our children
than what has ever been.

Where we pay hope forward
instead of more debt—

debt to the world,
debt to those wronged,
debt to our planet,
that can never be repaid.

Where morality matters more
than FOMO or YOLO.

Where difference is shared
in pursuit of enlightenment,
not weaponized into division.

I have a dream
that he was a prophet
as much as an activist,
as much as a healer.

And I am willing to fight
for the peace he envisioned.

Are you?

— Liora

More work in this vein lives under The Reckoning Lens:

Thanks for reading this poem. If my work here speaks to you and you’d like to support it:
– Buy me a coffee — a small boost for the human behind the words.
– Feed the kitties — cover a day’s meals for the colony I care for; you’ll get Whiskers in the Dark, a mini-zine, as thanks.
– Grab my chapbook — Through the Fire, Vol. I is out now on Amazon, premium print + digital.

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