An Emancipation Proclamation
Few of us could have imagined today's long lines,
Forming all across this engaged nation,
As we voted for hope and change,
Relief from the covert, opaque depredations
Of the Bush administration's sinister silencing of our voice.
Barack Obama's ability to energize millions
Reminds us of Martin Luther King's eloquent beckonings,
His dream of a nation united, not divided by Jim Crow,
Not terrorized by White Citizens Councils, the KKK,
George Wallace's and Orval Faubus's lynch-mob rule.
Tonight, as the polls close and the counting begins,
All we can pray for is a repudiation of slavery's legacy,
A forgiveness of the white man's ignorance and turpitude —
Ballots cast for Dred Scott, George Washington Carver,
W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, MLK...Barack Obama.
11/04/08 - (2)
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