Heroes

Kwame Dawes

Children play on a paved playground adjacaent to a brick public housing complex. Behind them is a wall with a mural with large depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, partially covered with grafitti.

Do you care to know
their names—Malcolm,
Martin, Medgar?

Your dress,
little woman, is the flag
that promises you
its stars, but leaves
you with nothing.

Someone says their names.
You imagine the bullets
tearing into them,
you imagine that this
is how black men
must live, in chains,
waiting for the bullet.

Malcolm, Martin, Medgar.

University of Virginia Virginia Quarterly Review
5 Boar's Head Place
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University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903-3237
ISSN 2154-6932