A Poem

A Rider at the Oval

--Eduardo Montes-Bradley

 

A stranger rode into the hall of power,

a weary traveler from a battered land.

He came not to beg, but to stand,

bearing the weight of his people's sorrow.

Yet cruelty met him at the door,

words like stones, cold and sharp,

not from foes upon the battlefield,

but from hands once outstretched in promise.

 

Oh, how the world watches in silence,

as dignity is trampled by arrogance.

But the rider will ride on,

for his people still stand.

And history will remember—

not the cruelty, not the insult,

but the unbroken spirit

of those who will not kneel.