Monday, January 20, 2014

SONNET FOR MLK DAY


When Martin Luther King was shot I felt the
sudden shift in the atmosphere, like trying to
breathe underwater. It was three years after
Malcom X’s assassination and my new radical
friends and reading had opened my eyes to the
realities of class in the USA. King spent years
fighting racism and despite attempts on his life
and tons of threats seemed invulnerable, but as
soon as he organized a poor people’s campaign,
talking about the haves and have-nots, BAM!
Malcolm verbally attacked white folks with
impunity, but the minute he decided it was not
about race but about the poor and the wealthy,
BAM! I wondered if the Marxists had it right.




© 2014 Michael Lally 

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