Waiting

I am already making lists of words
I never want to hear again. 
Hoax. Witch hunt. Tremendous. 
In fact, any superlative.
And let’s not forget tweet, "Truth" Social,
or fake news. Alternative facts.
and the roll call of names: Hegspeth,
Caroline, J.D., Kristi, Miller, RFK, Pam Bondi

and the list of guilty minions 

too numerous to count.

I am looking forward to the day

when I won’t need a scorecard to keep track 

of the members of the cabinet, and their lack of qualifications;

and the prosecutors who resign 

rather than answer to the revenge plans 

of an untethered lunatic.

I’m waiting to wake up in the morning 

without hearing that a new outrage 

is dominating the headlines, 

without a new constitutional crisis arising, 

without an unspecified idiocy on the horizon. 

I find that I am tired

of spineless politicians 

who hold their political careers to be 

more important than their constitutional obligations. 

I am tired of lies. I am weary 

of empty promises designed to provoke 

cheers at super-spreader rallies; I am weary 

of the stress and the fury and 

the knot in my stomach

when the president appears on the news. 

I can no longer bear the elevation of ignorance,

the disbelief in science; the promotion of hatred and violence,  

the attacks on innocent people who are,

for the most part, just trying 

to make it through as best they can.

What has happened to respect, to honor, to integrity? 

Is compassion out of style?   

Who are these pious zealots 

who have forgotten the Golden Rule?

or just abbreviated it to “Do unto others” 

and do it in the worst possible way.

I pray for your return, America.

I pray for the end of Trump, and all his yes-men,

and those who affirm his acts by their silence. 

I pray for a new beginning.