A collective grief
has settled over the land.
Only time can heal.
We may never know
nor fully understand why
our freedom must go.
We must be the heart
of miracles yet to be.
And bring freedom back.
It is ours to seize
from its darkest journey and
bring it back to light.
Courage is our friend.
Struggles are not the end, but
A new beginning.
And just like that, friends,
the weight of grief rises up.
Grief comes to an end.
I yearn to see you
happily and truly free,
breathing liberty.
WASHING DAY
If only we could change relationships
the way we change sheets.
Only when they get dirty is not enough
to get a good night’s sleep.
Alito and Thomas rest easier than we in their dirt,
and claim no government washing machine
can touch their white sheets hidden by black robes,
robes so black the dirt collecting there
has been hidden from our view.
But, we smell it. Phew!
We watch their corrupt dust collect
at the foot of their court decisions,
based not on precedent of law,
but formed from hands too dirty
to keep a nation’s sheets clean;
rulings filled with unjustified derision.
We need to change the sheets, America.
We have allowed the white sheets
of privileged un-justice to cheat as
they hide behind black robes.
Airing our dirty linen has become mere sport.
It is time to change the sheets,
to wash them clean of prejudice used
to promote power and greed.
Justice is not a game of any sort.
We need to remake our American bed
with clean sheets.
SCOTUS has no “never wash” label
with an “X” across its symbols of power.
We must go back in time
to the nursery rhyme
“They that wash on Monday,
have all the week to dry…
They that wash on Thursday,
wash for shame.
They that wash on Friday,
wash in need.
And they that wash on Saturday,
OH! they are sluts indeed.”
And still chief Justice Roberts delays.
We need to change our sheets,
to wash them clean,
remake the bed beyond the bar,
now that we have seen
the dirty robes hiding unclean sheets
of America’s shame,
claimed in Lady Justice’s name.
No lady would behave this way.
She would have started washing
on Monday.
annarino writes 