Mourning Cry

I got triggered this morning,

a random scene from a film

moving me to tears.

*

The vignette was emotional,

certainly,

but it was really only the tipping point.

*

I realized, through the sobbing,

the grief coming through was

from my own sorrow

*

at what we’re losing.

*

We face losing our compassion.

We face losing our capability for love.

We face losing our humanity,

*

bit by little bit, outrage after outrage,

with a bloated present-day Nero

serving as useful idiot

*

for hidden bullies behind the curtain

now barely concealing their disdain

for the ideals of this land.

*

Listen to them closely,

and you’ll hear them speak

the quiet parts out loud, now,

*

playbook to perfidy tucked

securely under their arm,

overlaid with a holy book

*

to justify the societal dissection we

are

witnessing.

*

I wept this morning. Soon

you will, too, when ugly Fate

comes pounding on your door,

*

calling you to account. Sweeping up

you and yours. Threatening you with

denaturalization. Gutting your institutions.

*

I wept this morning, and then did

the only thing I know how to do:

*

Let the tears irrigate this page,

inform this electronic scrawl,

and try to make sense of it all.