We Were There

PSYCHE-GLOW

                                      i.m. MLK

That other Henry, in seclusion

(District of Columbia).

Mourning Eurydice

veiled, so – Isis in stone.

The chaos of the dynamo,

the violence of men

(Mont St.-Michel)... sun

clouded by confusion.  Apollo

camouflaged as Hobo now

flickering cigarettes

into the Seine – alights

in Memphis, on a garbage scow.

Columbia, Columbia, murmurs

the mourning dove, come back.

Gray sketch in black

& white, along the watchtower.

One ghost dance treads this lambent maze

draws wool into a knot

or chord of charity.

Her milky Manitou is wise.

The profane land, amnesiac

is lifted into tune

by memory of one

who went before – his trouble on his back

your trouble too.  A Psyche-glow

to orient the west

toward east, the past

into a future peace – heart’s overflow.

4.4.16

In the summer of 1968, my father took me with him on a trip to D.C., where we went down to the National Mall to be part of the crowd at "Resurrection City" - the encampment of the Poor People's Campaign, which had been initiated by MLK.  I went through some of my dad's papers after he passed away last spring, and found this pennant.