Max

This poem is to Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

The man who gave America a reason

To fight

Not a war

With guns and bombs and tanks

But to fight the war

Where the rewards are higher

But the costs are greater

The war that is fought with a pen and paper

A war that is fought with words

A war that has the reasoning of equality

The weapons of choice are words

Words that take form like a gun

And the victim waits to feel the punch of a few simple words

A punch that stings more like a bullet

Words with a punch that kills but never shows

This poem is to the man who did not start the war

But instead the man who simply showed that

These words

The words that were being used

As guns and bullets and bombs

And turn them into a peace offering

This poem is meant to ask the questions

That only the man himself

The peace maker

MLK

Can answer

1) how do you gather the courage

To stand in front of the mass

Of people who look to your speeches

As a soldier looks to a survival kit

Give to him by his commanding officer

How did you find the courage to speak the words

In such a way as to not rally the troops

As some men that held your equal power

Over the people

But instead show them that peace

And love will give the people what they want

Equality

2) Did you know? Did you know that that day

He was standing there

Waiting for you to stand at the perfect angle?

Did you know that that sniper was standing there

Taking aim to shoot the very weapon

The weapon that gave you the power to rally

These people to fight for what they wanted

But not to fight with fists and guns

But to fight with peace and simply

Protest and boycott

3)how did you keep your courage

As you watched your brothers and sisters

Be sprayed with the hoses

Of those firemen

How did you keep your courage

As you watched your brothers and sisters

Be attacked by others and by the policemen

With their dogs

How did you keep your courage

As you sat in the cell that those cops threw you in

Simply for standing up for the rights of people

4) was there ever a time

You felt like giving up?

Where you simply felt like

Stopping

To stop giving these speeches

To stop telling people things

And then watching them getting hurt

For following your advice

Was there ever a time

Where you looked in the mirror

And said that you couldn't

Do it anymore?

You couldn't take the pain

The pain of watched these people

Who were treated unfairly

For simply accepting something they couldn't change

5) How deep were the wounds you

Inflicted on your soul before

You decided to fight for the rights

For the mistreated in America?

How long did it take

Before you stopped caring

About societies punishments

And started to fight this ongoing war

For equality?

How deep did your wounds run

From all those shots you took

To yourself before you stepped up

To the plate as our general

In this war

Dear MLK

I just wanted to say thank you

And I know you will never be

Able to hear this poem

Not just because the assassin

Took your life too quickly

But if he hadn't

Maybe you would be here to

Hear this

Since you turn 85

On January 15th in 2014

Dear MLK

I'm sorry that someone

Felt the need to take your life

All too quickly

I'm sorry that you couldn't see

The outcome of this

Ongoing war