m ss ng elements

“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls    
will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.”    
—Martin Luther King Jr, I Have a Dream    
    
no word of kindness kissed your ears    
when, infantile, you longed    
for cuddles, hugs, and m ss ng cheers    
when you were deeply wronged.    
had you scant care for innocence    
when creatures lame you chased    
and brutalised with violence    
their habitat laid waste;    
had food gone m ss ng on lean nights    
your stomach sent to bed    
with nothing but a meagre bite—    
more mouths than could be fed    
—then would life’s m ss ng elements  
on which the poor build hope    
expose your gross incontinence    
and hang you by love’s rope.    
     
whence love went m ss ng from your heart    
the seeds of evil sprang;    
whence patience blew its walls apart    
a deadly bullet rang    
upon the night that took my son    
with dreams still in his eyes    
for he could find no place to run:    
race-rage heard not his cries.    
a bullet m ss ng from your gun    
his corpse cold to the ground    
his last skies bloomed no morning sun    
another black-life downed.    
a father m ss ng, whose fresh seed    
would roam a troubled earth    
his absent nurture, where now bleed    
lost children at first-birth.    
     
© Copyright 2020 June 20    
by Clyve A. Bowen♫