This poem reads like a list, ticking off tiny boxes next to news events and reports on public sentiment, post-inauguration.
The snowballs come from a TV news video of Russian police, being pelted by protesters. Such scenes remind me, just how naïve we are, thinking that the world will just continue on, in a stable, peaceful fashion. Instability elsewhere could really “rock our world.” Just as our own recent bumbling capriciousness has shifted the very foundation, on which the peaceful world depends.
Even after the inauguration, many “on both sides” continue to misbehave. The tiny boxes in our hands tell us what we should think or feel, extrapolating from our online preferences. Making us into monsters.
Partisan politics and the eagerly-denied twin disasters, climate change and the pandemic, have all reached a boiling point at once. It is time to turn down the heat.
Hope those who are working on the world’s real problems are not distracted, by the noise of our bickering.
Thanks for coming by to read!
Snowballs at policemen.
Forests set afire.
Tiny boxes telling us, each day,
Our heart’s desire.
Elbows poking bellies.
(Bellies marbled well.)
Parties telling other parties
They can go to hell.
Celebrating. Songfest.
Bitter, aching rage.
Poking at the wound, we tell
The others: Turn the page!
Victory, in a needle.
Fling caution to the wind!
Numb, to mounting numbers.
Is unmasking such a sin?
Pinching off the voting,
Damming errant streams
Will make The Next Time easier.
We’re fraying at the seams.
Our victory lap has ended.
This world must stay alert!
A bomb is slowly ticking.
Let the bomb squad do its work.
Copyright 2021 Andrea LeDew
For a poem about climate change see Greenland. For an essay about perceived threats, read Monsters and Demons.
Unfortunately, I think you’re right. Anthony Fauce made a very good point in an interview tonight. The country is in crisis, people are dying, and we don’t have time to waste trying to assign blame. We just need to fix it.
Thanks Liz.