Obama, The World Rejoices, But What Will You Do?

Dear, dear Obama,
 You are a bright man,
 An upright man,
 A man above hate and recrimination,
 A just man whom suffering makes wince,
 Having suffered much—
 A man who means well by his people,
 Black, White and others,
 And by the world.

Your people did not give you victory
 Only because you are Black,
 But because they long for the return
 Of decency, peace, and prosperity.

Yet, you are to be now
 The executive head of a conglomerate
 That has inflicted much suffering
 Upon all parts of the world,
 Even when it did what looked like the
“right thing†.

You will preside over a powerhouse
 That never tires of justifying all its deeds
 Now in the name of freedom,
 Now in the name of god.
 And the power-structures your predecessors
 Built, often over the world’s blood,
 Surround you,
 And assasins lurk and abound,
 Having drawn high blood before.

What will you do?
 Make intelligent compromise?
 Go down with subtlety the trodden road,
 Putting your best intent on hold?

Or, will you make bold,
 Embrace the world, and walk in its step,
 Giving with selfless grace,
 And taking with gratitude in required measure?
 Silence the dogs of war,
 And let peace and mankind smile?

Everywhere, people wait and watch—
 In the sands of Iraq,
 In the mountains of Afghanistan,
 In the usurped lands of Palestine;
 In the streets and factories of the world,
 Among enslaved states,
 And “sanctioned†swathes of territories
 Where children die in the millions of denial,
 As their elders trudge from land to land
 Looking for some momentary home,
 Till they trudge again.

And in your own country
 Memory seeks to transcend
 Her founding genocide,
 And the animal sweat of slavery
 That furnished the White House
 That you shall adorn.
 Those that made history
 To put you on high
 Wish to be a people like any other,
 Trusted, loved, wanted.

In your victory speech you said
 How after “some two centuries, America
 Will have a democracy by the people,
 Of the people, for the people†.
 Do you remember?
 Therein you said everything, remembering
 As you must have that even as
 Jefferson was writing the Declaration
 He owned a hundred slaves,
 Remembering Rosa Parks, and Doctor King,
 Remembering that not until
 A hundred and ninety years after independence
 Did Black people get their right to vote,
 Although it had been written
 That all men are created equal
 And have unalienable rights.

Not wishing to be seen as only Black,
 You did not say all that,
 But also not wishing to be another Uncle Tom
 You knew and said that democracy
 Had arrived only some two centuries after
 The Declaration.
 Which is why you also said
 That America’s strength is not war-making
 Or the scale of her wealth, but the ideals
 Of that First Covenant
 Which now has found fruition.

Obama, how can you then not see
 That the world awaits the very same message?
 If “exceptionalism†there must be,
 Let it not be thrust like a dagger
 Into the world’s breast,
 But like the light that once issued
 From those ideals of equality
 And unalienable rights.

Could you be seen to be
 That beacon,
 The world would gladly join with you
 When you were seen to be righting
 Those that oppressed the world.
 Something you cannot do with success
 If seen as chief oppressor.

Let, therefore, from the Bush
 Rise the fire that warms all mankind
 Without fear, or greed, and favour
 Only for those who need justice the most.
 So we may with Christopher Marlowe say:
 â€œBlack is the beauty of the brightest day.â€

Failing, you risk everything,
 Most of all the faith of those who,
 In electing you, thought
 An alternate America is possible,
 And an alternate world as well.
 And many then will say, perfidiously,
 Never trust a Black man to run the country.
 Unthinkable would then be the regression
 Into bestial war and bigotry.

Take then the blessings of the world,
 And, use your clout
 To work not for the fat-cats
 In America and the nations,
 But everywhere for those
 Who for centuries have been left out.