Six Decades Later We Are Still Marching

Six Decades Later We Are Still Marching

© Carlos Raul Dufflar 8/23/2025

The beauty of the sunrise wakes you up

to hear the birds singing in the branches of the trees

Rose oil surrounds all of us

The call of human beings in all corners of the country

as we meet at the city of Philadelphia

that lifted our love for the children to live

Within the circle of the Poor People’s Army

we boarded the bus on our way to Washington, DC

We were young, we were children, and we were seniors

A gift of life of our songs that we were singing

Ain’t nobody’s gonna turn us around

We’re gonna keep on marching, 

We’re gonna keep on marching

Until we get our demands

We’re gonna keep on talking and marching

Until we get to freedom land

We must save the children with our love and compassion

for a brighter future

Nourishing our songs that lifted our spirits

Within minutes, we arrived at Washington, DC

The water flows beside the Potomac River

The grass is green and living

Trampled all day long with tourists and National Guard

We all gathered in a circle 

in front of Martin Luther King’s memorial

with our demands to save the children to live in peace

For another world is possible

Poets praising the struggle for peace, justice, and love

For the end of the war on the poor

The time hit the clock with a call for all to march

Under our banner of the Poor People’s Army

In the tradition of 57 years of Martin Luther King’s

Poor People’s Campaign

We entered the West Potomac Park

The Washington Monument

With our chants and our demands

Walking down the Reflecting Pool

A past memory that history inherited another page

So the spirit lifted me to my former home

So I stopped from marching and walked over

To my former home

It was a moment of silence

On this sacred space

We walked back and joined the march again

And we walked until we reached the footsteps of the Lincoln Monument

It was time for lunch

For all of us who were daring to march 

for the children and peace not war

We enjoyed our lunch

And now it was time 

We crossed the land – there’s poison in the air

The masks, the hoods that are riding and lying

Claiming that they are

Superman and Robin and the Lone Ranger

And the warmongers 

And the filthy rich that profit from the war machine

While the children are hungry and the people are unhoused

Soon we were returning now to march again 

on this beautiful sunny warm day

with our chants of peace and love

while we arrived at the Pentagon parking lot

We all sat down in a circle

for a rally and a teach-in

and people were sharing their words

that billions are spent on war and death and destruction

bombing of children in Gaza and Latin America

And in America denying our democratic human rights at home

while forgetting our basic needs 

of healthcare, food, housing, jobs, justice, and education

Simply for the people

It should be people before profit

than the poor people just surviving to live

We must stand in solidarity with the people in the world

All over the world

About the war, about injustice, and all types of sickness

And pigs dancing in their profits

But this is our song – a people’s song

of over 60 years ago

that ain’t nobody is gonna turn us around

it is our song of love and peace

as we keep on marching

and no one will turn us around

against the mass of war and hatred

And we’re gonna keep on marching and talking

Until we get what is ours