I Eat Poetry

Now that he is safely dead
Let us praise him
Build monuments to his glory
Sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make
Such convenient heroes: They cannot rise
To challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to make a better world.

So, now that he is safely dead
We with eased consciences
Will teach our children
That he was a great man … knowing
That the cause for which he lived
Is still a cause
And the dream for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man’s dream.

Carl Wendell Himes, Jr.