A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Trees are never felled . . . in summer . . . Not when the fruit . . .
is yet to be borne . . . Never before the promise . . . is fulfilled . . .
Not when their cooling shade . . . has yet to comfort . . .
Yet there are those . . . unheeding of nature . . . indifferent to
ecology . . . ignorant of need . . . who . . . with ax and sharpened
saw . . . would . . . in boots . . . step forth damaging . . .
Not the tree . . . for it falls . . . But those who would . . . in
summer’s heat . . . or winter’s cold . . . contemplate . . . the
beauty . . .
Nikki Giovanni, “A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy” from Those Who Ride the Night Winds. Copyright © 1983 by Nikki Giovanni. Used with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source:
The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni
(2003)
