'I Have A Dream, ' Meant Nothing To Me Poem by Michael Hunter

I never met a black man
until I was twenty-one.
They simply didn't live where
I was raised, deep behind
the 'Zion Curtain.'

Of course, I'd seen them,
on TV, and once from a
distance on a dirty west-side street
where you rolled up your car
windows and locked your doors.

'I have a dream' meant nothing to me
who'd never struggled under anyone's
yoke, who didn't grow up in poverty and want,
or being 'guilty' because of the color of my skin,
and being told, 'To the back of the bus, BOY! '

Oh, I'd been 'persecuted' - poor little
white Mormon boy that I was. I thought we
were picked on - we members of the only truth,
'Why can't they just leave us alone! ? '
I'd shout and cry, angered over being
told my faith was a lie.

Then, ironically, God sent me a black man,
and he showed me the truth of my life.
He loved me into a life of trusting Christ,
and seeing no skin color in my
brothers in the Lord.

Then in service to my country,
I found myself as a minority for the
first time in my life - and learned what
it was like to wonder why I was
treated differently.

I saw the looks, and heard the quiet
'honky, ' 'cracker, ' 'white boy, ' spoken
behind my back, and felt the chill of
loneliness and fear being a different
one among others who were not the same.

Through it all, I've come to find,
'I have a dream too! ' One where
ALL hold hands in color-blind love,
and share each others burdens
without anyone feeling LESS, or MORE.

It's true - I never spoke to a black man
until I was twenty one - and I discovered a
profound and mind-blowing epiphany
that he...

Was

Just

Like

Me!


© 2008 - Michael Hunter