Thursday, January 21, 2021

A New Poem: And the Wind Blew

Inauguration day felt hopeful.  Such a good thing.  I wrote this a few days before, and even with some renewed hope, I can't forget or ignore what feels true.  

And the power went out. 
The wind lifted and overturned chairs,
    bent and broke tree limbs and whole trees,
    crashed through wind chimes,
    tossed bits and pieces of things to the ground.
Was it coincidence that it was the last day of the presidency
    that also upended things,
    that plundered the earth for profit,
    that enlarged the rich and diminished the rest,
    that lied in order to sway the gullible?

Perhaps the wind came to disrupt,
    but not in the way he disrupted.
Perhaps it came from an earth
    attempting to cleanse itself and us.
Perhaps the unsettled feelings it inspired    
    were not a bad thing.
Things are unsettled, and so
    must we be.

A virus rages and mutates as we
    do not change enough, or fast enough,
    to learn the lessons of the necessary.
Will the change of power brokers be enough?
There are 400,000 dead in our land alone,
    and many deaths still to come.
Maybe mine.  Maybe yours.
Perhaps the wind was a warning
    as well as a cleansing.
Perhaps we should listen to the wind.
Strike out "Perhaps."
We should listen to the wind.





Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Yes

 Sometimes the poems come quickly, all of a piece.  This is one of those.

Anxiety rises and sets
like the sun.
Every day passes
like the last.
Sheltered, walking,
eating fine meals and
drinking bitter dregs.
We hold the tension,
pulled and pulling
this way and that.
Calm and safe
in an unsafe calm.
Holding on 
to a Christmas tree
past the time it should be 
tossed to the curb.
This is how we live
in the time of old age,
in the weary age,
in the world-beaten age.
This is what we have -
our hands full of salt,
our nights full of dark dreams,
our lives still shining with light.