Warm Summer Rain

Eleven hooded men
Eerie in the glow of torches
Within their circle
A young black man kneels
Arms bound behind him
His bloody face a mask of terror
His grandfather, beside him
Wearing the face of Jesus
As he passively awaits his fate
The dripping southern night
About to snatch another bit
Of our humanity
Whipping now done
Twin nooses await
Warm summer rain
Tears of those
Who have gone before them


.MLK Martin Luther King