Again
by Marilyn Mohr
The pages of time have been blown back fifty years.
I am boarding the Freedom bus south.
Jim Peck instructs us on how to protect our heads
when the batons fall as we confront the sheriffs.
His scared face cracks into a smile as he tells me
not to worry. “They hit the tall guys first.”
I fast forward to The March on Washington
Where I held my husband’s hand and we
Heard Dr. King’s “ I Have A Dream.”
The page is wet for lost love and lost effort.
The bigots and hawks are in control and I
have to get into formation again to fight
battles I thought we had won, press my
shoulders to the wheel once more for the
Anti-Defamation League, Planned Parenthood,
The NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, and
the International Refugee Council.
I cannot be old, I cannot be tired, in this new war.
I empty my wallet, put-on my walking shoes and march.
I am boarding the Freedom bus south.
Jim Peck instructs us on how to protect our heads
when the batons fall as we confront the sheriffs.
His scared face cracks into a smile as he tells me
not to worry. “They hit the tall guys first.”
I fast forward to The March on Washington
Where I held my husband’s hand and we
Heard Dr. King’s “ I Have A Dream.”
The page is wet for lost love and lost effort.
The bigots and hawks are in control and I
have to get into formation again to fight
battles I thought we had won, press my
shoulders to the wheel once more for the
Anti-Defamation League, Planned Parenthood,
The NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, and
the International Refugee Council.
I cannot be old, I cannot be tired, in this new war.
I empty my wallet, put-on my walking shoes and march.
Marilyn Mohr is a New Jersey Based poet and Editor. Former curator of The Poets' Forum , her recent work can be seen in the anthology, "Meta-Land." Author of two volumes of poetry, " Running The Track", and "Satchel" and the forthcoming " Chasing The Red Sky" , her work has appeared in Lips, Home planet News, and South Mountain Poets.
