gershon hepner - rosa

Only one man sat behind
Ms. Rosa Parks, and he looked glum,
an image in the viewer’s mind
of heartbeats on a bigot’s drum
whose rhythm is quite out of sync
with that of people who’re enlightened.
He was a journalist, no fink
who feared a world that wasn’t whitened.
The heroism we have bought
was basically a photo-op;
what we polemically are taught
is hype which hopes to make us hop.

12/7/05

gershon hepner

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rosa/