King’s Dream Deferred
(Tribute to Langston Hughes)

Langston asked,
What happens to a dream deferred?
Take a look around
The answer is evident
When blissful ignorance is preferred

Creation of a false utopia state
As the dream flips
To a night-mare-ish enticing fate

Langston asked,
What happens to a dream deferred?
The American dream
Masquerades as freedom to liberate

The vision lost in a dream
Allowing a winking eye to subdue
The "we shall overcome" scream

Dropping the neighbor from the hood
Left our future – victim
Doing our community no good

Langston asked
What happens to a dream deferred/
The answer is now evident
When blissful ignorance is preferred

Integrating the dream
Into the Amerikan scheme
The vision denied
Even before "home land security" was implied

The night-mare-ish Amerikan scheme
That arrested the King’s dream
Notwithstanding, the 40 acres and a mule
Reparations settlement
That was never redeemed

Destroy the family
That is part of the scheme of things
Throw in "women’s lib"
The Black Kings will never rule
Without the strength of Adam’s rib

Oh and
Let’s drop ship the euphoric marijuana, cocaine and poppy
Direct to the hood
For a future of dealers and the stone junky
And let their seed invest in the business
Of self destruction and total corruption

Make available all sorts of ammo
AK47’s and Uzi’s to kill
It will make your extinction easier
Because desire and greed
Will demand that you feed
That macho, egotistical need

Langston asked,
What happens to a dream deferred?
Take a look around
The answer is evident
The visions’ been blurred
And a night-mare-ish utopia is preferred

Wake up!
Ya’ll please wake up!
So I can get me some sleep!

- Dessie Bey

©2004-1/18/04

Dessie Bey, local poet and member of Mothers of African American Males (MAAMS) reads at the MLK service. (Photo by Marie Skoczylas)