American Voices

The days slide by…our lives pressed up 

against windows 

looking in …looking out. 

waiting for the light to change….

Beneath the small compromised steps of daily life

I watch the foundations of a nation splinter, 

orphaned parts renouncing the whole,

their voices scattering like sparks in the wind

catching fire in the neighborhoods of my heart,

leaving the singed imprint of their darkness

on every vivid nerve

Today, fractured America is speaking loudly 

from hardship…from pain…from love 

defending and asserting  

asking and reflecting 

who am I now?…and now?…and now?

A chorus of impressions respond…  

You are…

A vast carbon footprint on the zigzagging road of excess

a warm summer night embedded with rap music and lullabies 

the practice of justice that bends towards power 

the dream of rags to riches pierced by nightmares

You are…

A child sitting on the broad shoulders of a father’s faith

a con-man, selling misconceptions, turning wine into dirty water 

exhaustion and sorrow, seeking oblivion in the drug of denial

a beer-can floating in a Hollywood swimming pool 

You are…

a knee pressed against a neck, awaiting a breath that never comes 

a story told in aggressive fonts, rife with conquest and courage

a rushing river…thrashing against its banks, 

traveling deeper and deeper into the unknown …

And yet…

at the core of these seasons of discontent 

You are … 

the longing for the union of Heart & Soul & Earth

raising the rusty cup of hope to your lips, 

drinking deeply…and 

passing it quietly on 

to me