Questions to Heaven – A Poem about Heroes

While sitting, I pine

Reflecting on those lost in time

With so many questions swirling in my mind

I wonder how anyone can believe in the divine

Bobby, Martin, and Malcolm, and Jack

Remain representations of a nation’s dignity under attack

If I could speak with those who have passed

I’d start with Martin

Inquiring about the courage he amassed

While marching in Selma, what did you think?

What carried you through it, causing you to barely blink?

Was it your God or all of those whom you carried?

Or your children at home and the wife whom you married?

Did you think of death often and were you afraid?

Or were you comforted by your ideals, and the vision of the land for which you prayed?

And what about Bobby, what went through your mind?

As your body lied paralyzed, on the evening you died

Did you know then, that after all of these years?

That we would carry your essence, within all of our hearts and each one of our tears

So many questions that I will never ask

For meeting any of you is now an unattainable task

Thus, my consolation is to look to the sky

To be touched by your words and your deeds, to discover the answers deep down inside