Jesse Jackson
Bob Stark

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Marching

All the way

From Selma, Alabama to Little Rock, Arkansas

All across the country

All the way to the White House

Last night

I watched the tears of Jesse Jackson

Falling from the faces of a rainbow coalition

Smiling

Hand-to-hand

Arm-in-arm

With the ghosts of Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale

The re-birth of democracy

Bursting from their eyes

"Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Running down Pennsylvania Avenue

Rattling the gates of the

Presidential palace

Celebrating

Shouting

"Hail to the Chief. Pack your bags Doctor Death Dubya,

You areno longer welcome here"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Shining

On an Inner City playground

Where a little black girl sat

Building sand castles in a sandbox

Proclaiming

"Yes, I can!"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Laying a wreath on the grave of Martin Luther King Jr.

Watering the ground beneath every tree

From which their ancestors had once hung

"We will overcome

We will overcome"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Refusing to fill-up separate water fountains

Or drip from a segregated washroom tap

Ever again

Walking beside striking Memphis garbage workers

Wearing signs

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

I Am a Man

"We will overcome

Some day"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Sitting in silent vigil

At the foot of the Lincoln Memorial

Praying to Abraham

Cheering Rosa Parks to the front of the bus

"We will overcome

We will overcome

Oh

Deep in my heart

I do believe

We will overcome

Some day"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

Flowing out of the pen of LBJ

Sitting in the Oval Office

Signing the Civil Rights Bill

Every man, woman, and child

Every man, woman, and child

EVERY man, woman, and child

Finally

Equal in the eyes ofGod

"We will overcome

Some day"

Last night

I watched the tears of Jesse Jackson

Washing the streets of despair

Whispering to hard luck loners and all

The blessedbroken souls of America

Come and gather here among us

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself"

Last night

I watched the tears of Jesse Jackson

Re-light the flame of the Statue of Liberty,

Too long shackled and silenced by

Homeland Security,

Facing inward to America

Chanting withthe ghost of Allen Ginsberg

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Last night

I saw the tears of Jesse Jackson

And wept

For America

Beautiful America

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