what fire do we huddle around?

 

upon a cusp

a pandemic,

an election,

plus all the other stuff of our lives

weigh upon our shoulders,

upon the work we do to express

how we can change the world for the better,

how we can change our family’s fortunes for the better,

fears beat upon us:

of sickness, of loss,

of being inadequate for what is needed,

every moment a cusp,

which can go any which way,

and which does, 

despite any hope and wish we feel about it,

emotion and reason are two ways

the world and we can interact together,

these days my emotions are hard to deny,

really they’re impossible to deny,

for me, my emotions pull me into the future,

into connection with others,

into belief in service and sacrifice,

into making myself realize that my happiness and success

only become real when I work with the other,

so that each of us moves toward the wholeness that calls to us,

I fear the future that far too many others are drawn to,

a future of defining “us” as the narrowest “us” possible,

a future of choosing hate and anger

as the fire around which to huddle,

a misstep that will make tomorrow 

so much less than the dreams of yesterday promised.

by Henry H. Walker

October 29, ‘20