taken from a telegram from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, June 16, 1963, agreeing to a White House meeting on racial justice

His proposal came in caps 
“SPECIAL DELIVERY”
three times underlined.
JFK
months away
from a bullet through his brain,
and Heschel,
graying in his haste
to put things right,
destined to walk with a King.

“CHURCH, SYNAGOGUE HAVE FAILED, THEY MUST
R EPENT . ”

The “they” typed
between the lines
a space in “r epent”
the period widowed.
Words drunk with urgency
staggered across the paper
imploring their reader:

 “I PROPOSE    THAT YOU MR  PRESIDENT    DECLARE    STATE OF
MORAL EMERGENCY .”

Still, police manned
the water cannons,
defending deafened ears.
Klansmen kept killing.

“…THE NEGRO PROBLEM WILL BE LIKE THEWEATHER,”
he prophesied – “EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT BUT NO BODY
DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT.”

The “no” and “body” tenuously penciled together, proofread
on the fly, no longer a no to a body. Or any body.

And like the weather…
still it rained,
still it rains,
still it reigns,

his “MARSHALLPLAN” for “NEGROS”
archived online
with his printed plea
for “SPIRITUAL XXXX AUDACITY”