April 4, 2018, Prescott-

Fifth years gone.

How have I changed?

I have come to know

many more people of colour.

I have grown to know them

as complete human beings,

instead of just

sympathetic figures,

on a screen.

I have learned to listen,

rather than pontificate.

I have felt the pain,

not just of the victims,

but also,

of the oppressors,

both witting and unwitting.

Fifty years down,

where are we,

as a people?

We are more inclusive.

We are, in many cases,

more willing

to have neighbours

of demographics

other than our own;

to welcome

new family members

who don’t look like us.

Left to overcome:

the suspicion;

the blame-shifting;

the false equivalency;

the name-calling;

the residue of Jim Crow.

He is yet an inspiration,

and that some ask

how can a man of colour

be a role model for

a man of pallour,

is itself proof

of how far we’ve yet to go.

The boy, named for an archangel,

and renamed for a flawed,

but powerful, change-agent,

remains one of my heroes.