Bonus Poem: January 20, 2021

The other night on the PBS NewsHour, David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart talked about peoples' reactions to President Biden's speech Thursday. Both talked about empathy, and what a relief it was to hear some of it from the White House for a change. Capehart even mentioned people crying with relief.  If you didn’t see it earlier, maybe you’d like to see my Inauguration poem on this theme, obviously inspired by Amanda Gorman.

January 20, 2021

 

We’ve been traumatized,

And demonized,

And can I say narcissistized;

And so, when yesterday the tears

Accumulated for four years

Began to pour,

It was as if a dam had broken

And we had all awoken,

Our hearts and minds all sore

From verbal beatings

And daily retreatings

From words and actions

That could help or heal.

Instead, the man perfected

The art of the steal,

While we just watched,

And had to slosh

Through muck and grime

And sleaze and crime

Our way until the day

When Biden could begin

To set things right.

It started with the sight

Of Trump and family leaving in the air,

While on split screen, began the prayers

Not just of those in the cathedral,

But ours, for whom a great upheaval

Was coming to an end!

And so, we mourned for what we’d lost,

And at what cost,

But cried as well because we’d crossed

Into another land,

A place where we can stand,

And sing My Country ‘tis of Thee

With pride and joy because we’re finally free,

And with the pageantry, the speeches and that poem!—

We find ourselves again at home.

 

Scott L. Barton