MLK, AJH, IHN, on the 65

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION MLK, AJH, IHN, and the 65 Be Essential Be Solid Be Constructive This inscription on the billboard of a SEPTA bus Stood leering

MLK, AJH, IHN, and the 65

 

 

Be Essential

Be Solid

Be Constructive

 

This inscription on the billboard of a SEPTA bus

Stood leering at the single dads who said, “Who, us?”

With the swinging of a hammer, singing out the pain

Takes me back to Peter Yarrow, can’t forget the name

 

When the streets were full of marchers (was it worth the fuss?)

Some put flowers in machine guns (might they root in dust)

Some let silence wax poetic as they blocked the streets

Now their children and their children don’t have what to eat

 

If I were a hammer, I would hammer in the morning

Throw out of the shelters into weather that was storming

I would hammer in the evening open up the doors

As the homeless stumble back from work, can’t take any more.

 

But the justice and the freedom to the wolves were cast

Cuz the passions of the people, they’re too hot to last

“The words of the prophets still speak to us today”

But with eardrums made of platinum we can’t hear to obey

 

Be Essential!

Be Solid!

Be Constructive!

 

The bare_ foot ba_ by crying for his mother

Opens door after door seeking comfort from another

You’re not too young to see that you must make your space

Find whatever arms will love in-a-world that has no face

 

The justice that will flow like a mighty stream

Swept the fathers and the brothers in a lifeless seam

Called the prisons and the shelters and the corners, too

Empty days of bleak dependence they are beckoning you

 

Frozen women’s hands button up your diapers

Though the touch is cold, the heart is warm, so you don’t fight her.

Circle time is spent around donated heaters

Charity from members is a vital feature

 

No one taught the rich that freedom isn’t free.

It’s dragged in chains from across the sea.

It’s loaded in the bottom of a rotting boat

All the “tempest-tost” of ghettos yore who just sought hope.

 

Be Essential

Be Solid

Be Constructive

(Oooooah!)

 

Be Essential

Be Solid

Be Constructive

(Ooooaah!)

 

Rich kids drown in books that kids in shelters lack

Hunger and privation team to hold you back

Head on your desk, dinner wasn’t much

Now your

 

Author's Note

Composition is being worksopped