A restless night wondering if the sign is still in place.
The sign I had to replace.
The young white man in the white SUV
loaded the Harris sign in his car’s rear
compartment, deportment of theft.
What cause does he serve?
My neighbor called to report, quite unnerved
as she saw him hurry my sign inside
then jump in the back seat of his ride.
I wondered at first to pause and consider
if the thief is motivated by hate,
or greed for a sign of his own.
Wishful thinking, I know.
Hate burns so fast,
Yet, we respond too slow
to catch the numbers on the license plate
of the vehicle likely stacked
with signs this crew used to show hate.
The sign has been replaced, another “on-order”
just in case the thief returns to take more plunder.
And, as I always have done, still I wonder
what motivates such sinful behavior.
Mild, stealing a campaign sign may be;
but, crossing hate’s boundaries,
moving over mine to steal my sign
shows hate’s design clearly, not merely
a sin old as time, and hard to contain
once such boundaries are crossed.
Such sins raise an alarm,
where and when would this thief
decide to cause even more harm?
Hate, once acted upon, fuels the fire;
and harming another grows in desire.
Words matter, you see.
they motivate young men such as he
to cross over boundaries once firmly in place.
Such is a nation’s disgrace
to act as if this campaign
is simply another political race.
annarino writes 