Reflections on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

The very week it was to have opened,
it was closed due to a quake.

But make no mistake
it wasn’t closed for long.
It couldn’t be.
It was long overdue.

Like Dr. King,
its visionaries had a dream
that would not disappear with the dawn.
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope…”

It is a lasting memorial on the Washington Mall
that will recall for years to come
the Fall in the Garden
and the reverse of the curse
that had caged people as animals.

A king’s ransom was spent
on this profile of courage
rendered in stone.
The countenance
of a short preacher man
whose legacy’s grown
larger than life and taller than truth
but apt for the cause he espoused.

And (I’m guessing)
this “prophet of peace”
would be humbled,
yet proud.

Perhaps the earthquake
that rocked DC this week
was Mother Nature’s way of recognizing one
who jolted the landscape of permissive prejudice
while shattering stereotypes
and leveling the playing field for all persons.

Peace be to Martin’s memory!