Accusation
A Poem on MLK, Jr. Day
©January 16th, 2017
By Vijaya Sundaram
Come, hold my hand, stand beside me
Look! Out here, at the edge of the known
We have worked, my love, how we have worked!
We made a pledge to honor, to preserve, to conserve
We made a pledge to raise up our fallen brother and sister,
We made a pledge to lift up the oppressed, the adrift,
We worked to clean the air, and make better the soil,
We worked to teach and learn that which would redeem,
Dreaming of Good.
Stand by me, here, at the edge of all that’s good
And see below, the miasma swirling upwards
Rising towards us, full of venom, full of spite
Ignorance and hatred writhe snake-like in the chasm.
Demented laughter echoes hollowly through the hills
While we cherish the words, the deeds, the courage
Of those who strode boldly into the precipice of the unknown,
So that they could map out the terrain, while we waited
For a sign.
But what if the terrain has no features?
What if all that’s good dies in the quicksand?
For, greed and indifference, and bilious prejudice
Flow through the arteries of those who would rule us.
Freed from all constraints, from the need to uphold the Good,
They laugh, and eat, and drink, and toast one another
While seas rise higher, and animals drown, and the air,
Thick as pea-soup, struggles down our windpipes
Into our lungs.
Shall we resist, shall we fight, shall we call it a war?
And what manner of fighting shall we do, since everything
That can be tried has been tried?
And will they, those consumed by prejudice and hatred,
Recognize our peaceful resistance to their bigotry?
Yet, fight we must, resist we shall, because how else
Can we turn, face our children, whose mute eyes,
Gazing across their dying inheritance straight at us,
Will say, J‘accuse?
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