You can not assassinate a spirit
You can only kill a man
You can not assassinate a spirit
You can only kill a man

The untimely end to an era
Hope shattered
Hearts broken
People left to deal with dreams deferred
Slain visions of freedom
Stretched out and lying on piss infested street corners
Previously desecrated on
By America’s king of exploitation
Capitalism

I have a dream
POW!

The towering civil rights leader
With a voice hot like an inferno
Slain
The man who had become known as Dr. King
Humbled to his knees
Forced to face the only fate
Life has guaranteed for us,
Death

With him the hopes and dreams
Of millions looking to him as their prodigy
Of millions looking to him as their prophet
Of millions looking to him as their leader
Of millions looking to him as their savior

One man who would take the cross
And give his life for humanity
One man who would mount the burden
Of millions of fearful souls
And will them to freedom

Or so they hoped
Or so they believed and prayed
When his heart quit thumping
Hope was lost
Time stopped
People were forced
To deal with the reality of trying to get somewhere
Without someone holding their hand and
Leading the way

Many gave up
Many quit trying
Figuring oppression was the destiny of life
But for some
The fight got stronger
The intensity of their spirit increased from the addition
Dr. King the man, was no more
But his spirit was forever
Determined to continue the fight
Against oppression
Determined to continue the fight
Against injustice
Determined to continue the fight
Against inequality
Determined to continue the fight
For freedom

It was a cold gloomy day
On April 4th, 1968 when a man
Oozing righteousness from his every pour
Was assassinated
Killed by a government intoxicated by the
False perception of playing God
But they failed

And to think,
They would attempt to assassinate the spirit of a man
With a man made tool of destruction
A ludicrous presumption to say the least
Yet they keep trying
And with each death I grow
Soon to become a figure so enormous
So colossal
That I will be able to tuck in a cannonball position
And roll to freedom
Crushing all opposition in my path

When they say Dr. King is dead
I hesitate
Then I laugh
Because I know his spirit
Lives vicariously through my soul
And if you look close enough
You can see the gleam of his eyes
Tucked carefully behind mine

They still do not understand
The only thing that can kill Dr. King is we
If we give up the fight for right and run
Fortunately we’ve just begun
And maybe this time they will understand

You can not assassinate a spirit
You can only kill a man
You can not assassinate a spirit
You can only kill a man