A 2020 Lament

How did we get here?

How do almost 50% of Americans think

That any of what that man does is ok?

In a world aching and scared,

How do we praise his hate?

How do we look at starving children

And tell them, you can’t live here,

And I’m taking your mother away?

Or stare into the eyes of a dead man

And tell him that’s okay?

Or hear the cries of an entire world

Begging for justice and peace and love,

And respond with threats and violence

Ignoring the pleas for the chaos around them.

How do we tell our children that this man

Who may have raped 27 women,

Definitely sexually harassed them,

Probably at least touched them,

Is the good guy?

How do we look them in the eye and say

His economic plan is best, when

It very well may be tax fraud…

When your children wake up in the morning,

Are you afraid they will get shot?

Do you wonder if they put up their hood

Or bring a hairbrush in their pocket,

Will they die in a ‘protectors’ cold blood?

Do you ask who the low income people are

The ones he is protecting you from?

Do you know the preschool teachers

Watching your kids, even through COVID?

And your grocery delivery person who kept you fed?

And the crying ones who have lost it all?

Speaking of COVID, did he care about your uncle?

Your grandfather, your mother, grandmother?

Did he hear the pleas of nurses, doctors,

As they battled the count of deaths?

No.

And yet.

How do I come to the end of this list,

And know I have not come close to “it?”

How can we know the things we know

And exist? Let alone be comfortable?

How can we know the things we know

And scream for 12 more years of this?

How can we lose the unimaginable and still?

And still.

Be here.

Vote. November 4.