hate and fear Trumpeted

I still wobble

as a teenager I won 

the Tennessee State Oratorical Contest for the Optimist Club,

and I still believe in possibility and hope,

like that old toy, Weebles,

I “wobble, and don’t fall down,”

that said, I still wobble from the last election:

I want to believe that people voted for something positive,

yet I can’t get past the hate and fear Trumpeted,

the lonely desperation that drove good people

to find self-worth through put-downs of the other,

when a person is drowning,

they can grab someone next to them,

and push them down to gain a few precious breaths of air,

how could we have neglected those hurting?

those so desperate, as to allow a demagogue

to use their frustrations, to get their votes,

now to forget their needs,

and to slip into the same Republican orthodoxy

that enshrines the wealthy as the best among us,

and gives us abortion and guns

as the issues to define us,

too many are dismissed in that orthodoxy,

and many of those dismissed still vote

for the very keepers of the dungeon,

a dungeon they could escape if they were not hoodwinked

by wealthy jailers who laugh at them all the way to the bank.

by Henry H. Walker

November 18, ‘16