Just A Dream Poem by Leonard Dabydeen

A little child wants to grow up

to become a man

and so he decides to seek help

from among the people

in his distant village

where a book in the hand

is the only voice that echoes

deep in the crevices of his mind

a television is but a dream

and a computer not found

in the pages of a thesaurus

his country is six feet below

any level of the ocean

and English is all that God

wants him to read

and his pen becomes mightier

than an MK45 (or 47- who cares)

in his journey across the Atlantic

he opens the book where the words

etch a brighter light for living

nurturing his manhood mind -

remembering this:

reading makes a perfect man

conference a ready man

and writing an exact man

(and thank God for Francis Bacon)

this is my pursuit, not

just a dream.