Daylight

Mamie Till’s pain

didn’t crush her pride,

when she held her son’s

battered skull and said:

“I see daylight on the other side.”

Rosa stood her ground, they tried

to force her from her seat on the bus

but on that long, dark ride to justice

she saw daylight on the other side.

Little did Malcom know that X

would mark the day he died,

confident the pain of betrayal would subside

and that daylight was on the other side.

When a bullet took down a King

With a dream to live side by side,

my city erupted in tears, but it cried

“I see daylight on the other side.”

For all the strange fruit tied

to trees, the dreams deferred

and petrified, our House on a Hill

lives in memory of the lives

in Chicago’s South Side,

We see daylight on the other side

We see daylight on the other side

We see daylight on the other side.

Mindy Kronenberg is an arts and culture professor at SUNY Empire State College. Her poems are frequently featured in a variety of poetry publications.