In The Heat Of The Night

"In the heat of the night",
a Ray Charles' chant,
not  only a song and a film
but a portrait of our time,
provoking, disturbing, uphill.
Telling of segregation
and of human relation,
-in the heat of the night-
when murder is trying to hide,
and suspicion, hatred and bribe
at last, step aside,
not just in the face of a brilliant mind,
but in honour of virtue, honesty, skill
that transcend race, time, human will.