Poem of the Day: In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.

1 / 19 / 2015

Poem of the Day: In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr. BY JUNE JORDAN I honey people murder mercy U.S.A.    the milkland turn to monsters teach    to kill to violate pull down destroy    the weakly freedom growing fruit    from being born America tomorrow yesterday rip rape    exacerbate despoil disfigure    crazy running threat the    deadly thrall appall belief dispel the wildlife burn the breast    the onward tongue the outward hand deform the normal rainy    riot sunshine shelter wreck of darkness derogate delimit blank explode deprive assassinate and batten up like bullets fatten up the raving greed reactivate a springtime terrorizing death by men by more than you or I can STOP        II They sleep who know a regulated place or pulse or tide or changing sky according to some universal    stage direction obvious    like shorewashed shells we share an afternoon of mourning    in between no next predictable except for wild reversal hearse rehearsal    bleach the blacklong lunging ritual of fright insanity and more deplorable abortion more and more June Jordan, "In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr." from Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by The June M. Jordan Literary Trust. Reprinted with the permission of The June M. Jordan Literary Trust,www.junejordan.com. Source: The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1997) JUNE JORDAN Biography  More poems by this author