Hour 2: “Promises to Keep”
“Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act”
My peers, savoring fresh air, are buying campers
And basking in wonders of waterfalls
And sunsets and snowy woods and meandering
Rivers and breathless vistas atop
breezy mountains aiming for paradise
My retired friends vacation in Hawaii
Tour Europe and cruise the Mediterranean —
where the seas are smooth and calm —
They relish Alaska’s northern shore –
where they watch dawn’s borealis shimmer like a dream
of angel’s wings, brushing the sky in rainbows
without the inconvenience of rain
Promises made to the ancestors
Who brought me through
And made this way
out for me
when there was no way
I have honor to keep
To carry the dream for
Progeny because
The battle was won for me, for them
Yet the war rages on
I have war songs to sing
Set to the cadence of higher ground,
Marching to Sweet Honey’s pure sound
And Ella’s prophetic voice:
“We who believe in freedom cannot rest”
Slipping up mountains coated with life’s blood
Carrying the burdens of this history
“Lifting as we climb”
Letting the future know
They won’t be able to retire
from this battlefield
For we have “miles to go”
And “promises to keep”
