The Yoke

{The first line of this poem came from former President Obama’s remarks on the tragic shootings that afflicted El Paso Texas and Dayton Ohio this week.

I thought the expression “people of goodwill” sounded outdated and quaint enough to be poetic, and the rest flowed from it.

This is my response to the stalling that seems habitual these days in government, on this and many other issues.

Of course the citzenry is not blameless.   Their passivity and apathy act as enablers to the government’s inaction addiction. 

So here is my “call to arms” so to speak, to those sleepy citizens,   Not just on the issue of the too easy availability of firearms, but on many other pressing, but more or less deliberately neglected, matters of national and international importance.}

People of goodwill,

Come take the journey,

Join the fight,

Though it be uphill.

Come lift the gurney

With all your might.

While the others jaw

And jab and bicker,

Strut and crow,

Lean into the saw.

This log is thicker

Than we know.

Though the powers that be

May own the present,

Cling to power,

Invincible are we.

The future’s essence,

It is ours.

So be not faint of heart.

We’ve conquered demons,

Exorcized

Worse devils. We’ll outsmart

These, bend their knees and

Minimize

Their stain. They’ll, too,be long forgotten.

Never yet has Bad prevailed,

When honest people of goodwill

Put on the yoke of Good Travail.

Copyright 2019 Andrea LeDew