A splitting
White sides
A jutting
Proud face
bold, alight
Like the man
granite forged
from racism
and fear
black and white
life and death
violence and
deliverance

Placed aside
America’s past
with water flowing
and words preaching
How he loved them,
understood them
implored them
to listen, love
and act

But I didn’t get
the symbolism
All white rock
split asunder
with a great man
a black man
in bas relief, half done
To unite us?
Mend our cracks?
Leave the White Wall
broken forever
never to exclude again?

So I stopped asking
and just listened:
“I was a black man
forged out of white constraint
I faced the unyielding granite of racism.
I became stronger, bolder, prouder
But unfinished, my life cut short –
in Memphis on a beautiful spring day”

– by MJB