My high school was on Martin Luther King Blvd across the street from the Los Angeles colosseum, the sports arena and the Exposition park
I spoke your name so many times when telling my aunt on which street to drop me off when my parents where too busy to take me to school, when telling the pizza guy where to deliver the food, when asking the bus driver “Does this bus stop near MLK boulevard?”

Your name like your legacy permeated the streets on the other side of town and was carried on the tongue of the urban fleet
of feet commuting, living, making a dime, trying to spread visions of a loving world

we inherit your words and they are gifts and we honor them today
I am happy your name never left
it enveloping
humanely birthing hope
in us it remains