ONCE AGAIN

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SONNET

When Martin Luther King was shot I felt the

sudden shift in the atmosphere, like trying to

breathe underwater. It was three years since

Malcom X’s assassination and my new radical

friends and reading had opened my eyes to the

realities of class in the USA. 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! King

spent years fighting racism and despite attempts

on his life and tons of threats seemed invulner-

able, but as soon as he organized a poor people’s

campaign talking about the haves and have-nots,

BAM! I wondered if the Marxists had it right.

(C) Michael Lally 2018