I REMEMBER THE MARCH

Doesn't take much
to remember . . .
the day when I walked
the March on Washington.

Today, memories pour forth,
much as a desert flash flood
engulfing anything in its path.

Perhaps today,
the best thing to do
is to simply let the memories
of that Wednesday in August
rise to the surface.

Yes —
it was a Wednesday,
not convenient on a weekend.
One had to want to be there.
Take time off of work or school.

As a young seminary student,
I was trying to make sense
of what people were doing
to each other across our country,
keeping some folks
as second-class citizens.

I so wanted to make a difference!

There was no trouble locating
the gathering that would eventually
numbered 250,000 strong,
milling around the Mall
between the monuments.

I worked my way to be
near the front, finding my place,
there I walked just four steps behind
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yes —
Twenty-three years old,
fifty years ago on a sky-blue August day,
I found where I needed to be.

Yes —
I stood at the base
the Lincoln Memorial steps.

Yes —
This March on Washington
marked the 100th Anniversary
after Abraham Lincoln signed
the Emancipation Proclamation.

Yes —
I heard John Lewis, Roy Wilkins
and many other speakers.

Yes —
I joined myriads of others
and sang "We Shall Overcome"
led by Joan Baez.

Yes —
Peter, Paul, and Mary,
Bob Dylan, Mahalia Jackson,
Marian Anderson right there
in front of me, singing their hearts out
into a bank of microphones.

Yes —
I heard King deliver
his now famous
"I Have a Dream" speech,
the power of his words and his presence
mesmerizing this huge crowd.

How could I  have been
so privileged as to have been
part of a movement
that refused to be thwarted!

Today, so much more still needs doing . . .