Nova

Normal.
As in: "How can we get back to...?"
Like HAL in that space odyssey,
I have to say, "I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that."
There is no 'normal' anymore.
The pod bay doors are locked down tight;
we are stuck inside with
lunatics abroad, a still-rampant virus,
with age-old injustice, and anxiety,
free-floating and amplified.
Outside--
a black hole that threatens to swallow
our fragile ship as it navigates
this new universe.

Who is to say that where we end
will be better or worse than
where we were before?
I used to marvel at my grandmothers:
the changes they lived through--
two world-changing wars,
the two-edged swords of
radio, television, internet...
The new 'normal' must have seemed
incredible, unsurvivable, science fictional
upheaval for them.
And yet, they survived
new breakthroughs, old issues, new thought
in the same way we are surviving--
one foot in front of the other,
plodding through uncertainty
(doubtful, distrustful, fearful)
to get to the other side,
to get to a place
we may not recognize at all:
a new world, a new star.

Max and Me

Last night,

flattened by the weight 

of this week’s worry,

I was looking at a children’s book— 

and happened on a page that read:

“And Max, the king of all wild things,

was lonely, and wanted to be 

where someone loved him best of all.” 

I began to cry at those words:

suddenly, inexplicably, sad

in this week of protest, police and politics:

sad for all the lonely people,

for the forgotten

the unheard, the left behind;

crying for the frightened, beaten,

trampled-down, no-place-left-to-go

people; for the mourners, the survivors,

who are not, and never have been

kings (of wild things or tame),

who are not, and never have been

heard,  

who are not and never have been

recognized, 

or celebrated, 

who are not and never have been

accepted

for who they are in this wide, wide world

where all men (supposedly)

are created equal, and

are endowed by their creator 

with certain inalienable rights—

Like life. 

Like liberty. 

Like the pursuit of happiness.

Like having someplace, some homeplace

where  someone loves them

best of all.