'I Have A Dream' 2019 Poem by Nika McGuin

There's a game running, back home
there's a race being run
my melanated people have swum a long way
their bronzed heads barely bobbing above water
always, with the shore sternly in sight

We've come so far...!
and if we've come so far
we can go farther still
just think of it -

I want to see my brothers standing tall
I need to see my sisters being loved and accepted
and once we do reach that shore
my dream, is that we'll rise hand in hand out of the sea
and that our footsteps will mingle boldly in the sand

I dream that we'll look back over the coarse waters
always remembering how our journey began
and that the world, will respect Afro-American history
so that we can never ever,
be bound by it again!