By Ric Hudgens, for MLK Day 2018

We keep waking up
in the clenched realization
of all we have lost and are losing,
that voracious slough of despond
waiting to engulf us.

But on this day
we trace our dawnward trek,
our companion’s burdens
as great as our own,
towards God’s freedom dreams.

We ascend
tethered by pain and common vision
towards a world where our losses
are consumed in consolation,
our loneliness in beloved community.

Our ancestors march with us still,
their stubborn determination
Spirit force of love,
carving from despair our stone of hope.
We climb together.