idiocy vs hope

 hope?

I am an optimist at heart,

I imagine an innate goodness within people,

the only way I could get to sleep in November, 2016,

when Trump unexpectedly won

was to declare to myself inside: "I choose hope!"

my decades of teaching actually supported such positivity,

true, my middle schoolers could choose wrong,

could choose a quick response over a measured one,

the lesser over the greater,

illusion over the harsh path

that might be what truly called to their feet,

with support, and love, they usually found the way forward,

now I worry about our country,

too many of the people who are part of us,

seem oblivious to the danger

of the forked tongues of candidates and media,

they who tell us what we want to hear,

what the lesser in us chooses to believe,

so as to escape from what is real

to the fantasy of what we want to be true,

it is all summed-up for me in a Congresswoman

whose response this week to a devastating storm

is to blame liberals who she claims can control the weather,

whether such idiocy can rule our choice of leaders

will be tested in a few weeks on election day.

by Henry H. Walker

October  10, ‘24