 Every blog has a Q & A page but this one may be a little different from some you’ve seen.Â
The letter “Q” has come to mean some pretty strange things in recent days. I am trying to answer its use as a rabble-rouser, with the “A” being our reaction, as responsible citizens of all stripes, to condemn criminal misbehavior, to stop the divisiveness that has led to it, and to just get along with each other, already.
I suppose that makes me profoundly naïve. But writing a poem focused on the letter Q and its Doppelgänger, A was an interesting exercise, nonetheless.Â
To all readers on both sides of the aisle, if you must step over the line, make sure it is the line in the center of the aisle. And make sure your hand is outstretched in friendship, when you do so.Â
The picture above recalls the fires set during the protests in the summer of 2020, which were happily absent, though replaced by even more disturbing events, during this most recent uprising at the Capitol. The photo also symbolizes my wish that in the future, everyone will get along like a house on fire. Â
Questioning the basest
Quotidian details.
Questing for meaning,
For Quality hacks.
Querulous chasing,
Like Quadrupeds, racing,
Quelling your rage with
Conspiracies, Quacks.
Quantities milling, round
Quorum-bound hostages,
Quarrel about killing,
Then Quickly agree.
You’ll Answer your Actions,
Our Agile response is.
Admit human failing.
Adapt, and be free.
Accessible, Always,
Your Anger’s subsiding.
You’re Aghast at your Actions!
You were Addled, online.
Show Aptitude! Work
In Alliance, together!
Combine our Abilities.
Anchor the line.
Audit our processes.
Aim to be better.
Act as a country,
As women and men!
Access your empathy.
Join All together.
Making Amends,
Be united, Again.
Copyright 2021 Andrea LeDew
For a short-short story told from a cultish point of view, read The Night Before.Â
For more joyous purple prose–or actually poetry–that is, not Red, not Blue, but Purple–read Indigo.
This poem is very well done.
Thanks Liz! We had just scheduled a Q&A Meeting of our local WordPress group, and I had to make the graphic to put out on social media. My idea was to put text in one color and then have a background of large “Q’s” meaning “question” in the background.
So glad I didn’t go with that idea! That would have gone over like a lead balloon this week!
But it made me think that someone needs to provide an A (answer) to this Q! And so the structure of Qs and As, was born. Contrived yes, but I hope in a good way. 😊
I also wanted to avoid the use of the term itself for fear of the post being flagged by AI and to avoid any popularization of this Questionable phenomenon.