Twenty-three years later, we fill pews at Riverside
where you preached, toyi-toyied that luminary day –
and mosques, synagogues, shrines
where the world mourns with us.
We walk on Wall Street where we welcomed you
with blizzards of confetti, come together
in Brooklyn’s broken alleys and Madiba Restaurant,
send fiery lanterns into the ink sky.
We gather where you commandeered the car
to meet boys and girls singing freedom songs
at the high school that will bear
your name.
We stand at attention at State Offices in Harlem,
air charged with your fever for justice,
pack the AMEZ Church with old campaigners,
and young worshippers who never knew you.
Our hearts fill Yankee Stadium, where you
reminded us the last team could be first, again,
elevated us with victories
we would never know.
In our hearts we join South Africans
with fists, flags, flowers,
songs in the shebeens of Alexandra,
candles in Soweto.
We take up tattered banners, prayers,
vow once more to seed your work
in ours, our children –
learn to live without you.
Donna Katzin, December 11, 2013
New York City