Room 306--A New Poem

I am listening to Mahalia
singing your favorite song 
as I stare into 
the last room
you would ever inhabit;
tears streaming down
cheeks,
that were too young
that day
the earth seemed
to stand still
and time
seemed to freeze--
seemed,
probably to those who were there,
to bear witness
as yet another native son
was taken before his time;
someone who,
in the words that would be spoken
soon thereafter,
of yet another,
"who saw wrong and tried to right it,
saw suffering and tried to heal it,
saw war and tried to stop it".

Were it not for hope,
which often wavers
in these still difficult days,
I would despair
that it does no good
to try to do good,
to try to be good
in this world
that would deem you
not fit to live
any longer--
history has shown
and
continues to show
that this is true;
but I take some comfort,
some solace,
as I stand 
outside a memorial
dedicated
to your memory,
as one beneficiary
of the good
that you tried to do,
that it was worth it
and your death,
like so many before you,
and so many hence,
was not in vain.
Thank God Almighty.

© 2014 Joseph Powell