MLK

Fewer and fewer people remember
his charisma, the marches, lack of fear
facing institutionalized violence,
including the American government’s
infiltration of the movement, their smear
of his ethics and its guiding ember.
It would be nice to say his dream lives on
and go forward, character over race,
on the Left side of history — equal
and up to the task, perhaps a prequel
to a time like The Tempest full of grace —
shipwrecked, but one, with all the monsters gone.
What are we going to do? It’s so dark.
AIs have more life than our fading spark.

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelancer based in Australia.  He is a former reporter for The New Bedford Standard-Times.