by Akua Lezli Hope
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| AI image… assisted by Akua Lezli Hope |
all over this land oh over this Land all over this land/ we are dissolute and
unwise we are fractured and fracturing we are falling failing falling/ into an
exegesis of convenience/ of a grasping not at straws but at unreason/ creeping
decrepitude in our body politic/ a petulant dementia/that sanctions Breaking
and entering Breaking and entering harm/ waging one million tiny Wars
inflaming warped hearts/ causing this conflagration that burns votes and
batters husbands in their homes/ endangering everything in this too late
hour/where we teeter totter slip on blood blood pooling bleeding
everywhere/ the deaths of our defenders responders resisters/ our climate
screaming at us slaying us/ flooding the water-full drying the drought stricken
shaking the fractured earth burning tinder-full forests/ all at once all fiercely
now/ and somehow I weep for that old man alone at home/struck in the head
and falling down
Author's Note: On October 28, Paul Pelosi, 82. was attacked by a man undertaking “a suicide mission” to kill his wife, speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi. The nightly news has been assaultive, as 33 million Pakistanis face despair UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale.” 1.3 million in Nigeria are displaced by floods. Somalia, like much of the Horn of Africa, is facing its worst drought in 40 years. Following the failure of four successive rainy seasons more than 7 million of the country’s 15 million people are experiencing severe hunger. Experts warn that the next rainy season between October and December will also likely fail, pushing several parts of the country into famine before the end of the year, unless aid efforts are urgently ramped up.
Akua Lezli Hope is a creator and wisdom seeker who uses sound, words, fiber, glass, metal, and wire to create poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, and peace. A paraplegic, third-generation New Yorker, her honors include the NEA, two NYFAs, NYSCA, SFPA, Elgin, & Best of the Net, Rhysling & Pushcart Prize nominations.