MARTIN

 Alas, you ascended the mountainside

To glimpse the promise of a people denied

You stretched full length on earthbound toes

Was shortly removed from down-home woes

And stench of irreparable genocide. 

A powerful humility shown up there

Your face pronounced by the receding hair

The tear stains gazed your noble cheeks

As gunfire muffled faint cries of the meek

Was there ever a limit to what you could bear?

Was there ever a moment when pain stood still

When wounds closed tight again hate's will

Through the haze of smoke and war's retreat

The rocks that burn beneath the feet

Uplifted by the sword that heals? 

It must have been difficult on the mountaintop

Looking down upon the developing crop

For a generation of youth had gone on a binge

While before the Creator you could only cringe

At each utterance of kite, spic, coon, and wop.

Yet, you rose above the calamitous warning

Below the clouds perpetually storming

Ill winds of change rearranging what horrors

The finger of victory uplifted in error

An occasional peace forgot in the morning. 

Then descended the slopes to stand your ground

It was there the flesh of your blood would be found

At the pits of injustice in Birmingham

Montgomery and DC, where the multitudes jammed

Didn't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round.

You braved the knell of a prophet's doom

And led a pilgrimage to Ghandi's tomb

He schooled you in the ways of war

Just heart and courage - no weapons more

To open another ungodly wound. 

Then came the shot that pierced our souls

From a Memphis balcony a red river flowed

And the garbage men for whom sakes you were there

Joined with the billions who bled everywhere

And corporate giants were put on hold

 

Martin, you were a lodge on a wasted plain

And a weary world looked to your flickering flame

By the strength of your voice even bigots were torn

And who once were warmongers blew the peacemaker's horn

That a lifetime of suffering was not suffered in vain.