Three Unideal Angels of Georgia
In Honor of Martin Luther King’s Birthday January 18th, 2021
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as quoted by Reverend Raphael Warnock (from King’s letter to clergy from Birmingham Jail).
Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock
Are not ideal individuals;
They’re real faces of democracy.
“Happy Hanukah,” Jon Ossoff said, “there is light in the darkness.”
We don’t live in King’s ideal of a “Beloved Community,”
We’ve proved white supremacists and Nazis still influence too many of us,
And we’ve also proved that King’s words
Live on in ordinary heroes who light up these dark days.
We’re still together, all of us, like it or not,
We share the stary heavens,
Misled by the same real and virtual junk food,
Surveilled by the same remote sensing satellites,
Guided by vulnerable and strangely wise hearts;
We’ve all watched Georgia, where a Jew, a black man,
And a millennial saint, Stacey Abrams, broke through.
On the porch in the wet snow of dawn,
I broke my boot through the iced-over birdbath,
And Strung LED lights
On a fence that’s seen all over the valley.
People needed light we figured.
We lit Hanukkah candles
And a bonfire on the Solstice.
Are we ready for the unideal promised land that’s possible?
Huge snowflakes drift exultantly through
The half-sun that pierces vast thunderheads.
Little black-headed or red-breasted birds
Peck seeds we put out, delighting us with comic arguments,
Swooping, soaring in twos, fives, or five-hundreds.
Will our divided culture self-organize a life-giving response?
No matter what sedition agitates our country,
Jon Ossoff, Reverend Warnock, and Stacey Abrams
Will continue leading us and following us like birds in a sky full of wings.
Forged in the fires of The Black Gospel and The London School of Economics,
Burnished in the warmth of John Lewis
Polished by thin ebony matriarchs in elegant hats,
Goaded by squat, tattooed mothers risking teargas and arrest.
Moses may have led the Israelites out of Egypt
But minions of African Americans, their allies, and especially black women
Are leading our country away from tyranny
Towards new forms of democracy,
Collectively, they are the real and unideal MLK of our time.
What gave them such strength?
Is it that single garment of destiny King said we’re all tied in?
“Let us all hope” King wrote from his narrow jail cell.
“that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away
And the deep fog of misunderstanding
Will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities…”
On Hanukkah, for eight days,
We light more and more candles till the whole hanukkiah is ablaze
And recount an old story that says:
Shed whatever light you have as a gift to future radiance.
What grounded generosity can we offer?
And if we fall into greed or martyrdom,
Will we get back up, and if we can’t,
Will we reach out for a hand?
I know, I know, there might not be one.
We might have to make the hand that lifts us — out of dust, spit, and prayers.
“[let us all hope], King’s letter continues,
“[that] in some not too distant tomorrow,
the radiant stars of love and brotherhood
Will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
Words destined to become flesh for the entire connected world,
Their enactment won’t be ideal,
Yet even on the darkest day of an isolating year,
The masked heroics of families, friends, essential workers,
And troops of unknown and unknowable angels defend and nourish
Each of our lights till we blaze steady and bright.
No polarizing nightmare, no misaligned prophet of privilege;
Nothing and no one can hold back this dawn.
