Martin Luther King Junior

Image credit: google: chrisabraham.com

We march on with Martin Luther King Jnr

Traversing the streets of Nairobi, Uganda and Tanzania

Singing “we shall overcome”

Marching on through tear gas canisters

Passing through a jet of hot water

In true fashion of satygraha

For the “latter-day-God’s-children”

We march on singing “Haki Yetu”

Infused with the vision of a bright future

Carrying behind us the shadow of maimed souls

Holding in our hearts the bravery of our forefathers

Symbolically walking into our future

We march on with the voices

Dating back to centuries past

Others not heard, tucked away in a nation’s closet

Of bloody past

We march on with voices to be born

Of “brothers’ keepers”

Of “sisters’ keepers”

With fire “shut in their bones”

With  voices true to pin

In a fiduciary capacity

To hold society’s values in trust

We march on through the streets of Nairobi,

Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala

Waving olive leaves

Wearing white gowns

Stepping on pavements in saintly pace

Waving at shops in brotherhood

In unison shouting “Peace”

And at every stop, we demonstrate

Our concern for humanity

The rising food prices

The below-par development

The executions

The corruption

We demonstrate the lost future

Of children unborn

Yet indebted by present-day

Extravagance

We demonstrate the sorrow

Of cancer patients

Persons with HIV/AIDS

Being eaten away

In the periphery, yet

At the centre, they

Have the life-blood

We march on with with Martin Luther King Junior

In satyagraha

To demonstrate the urgency of the moment

To fight for “God’s children”

We march on, undaunted

We march with Luther King Jnr.

C) Lorot Salem 2011