The optimism of fatherhood

It's Father's Day, his first,
holding his daughter who is gaining weight
on schedule, working to turn over by herself,
and talking!,  talking to him and his wife
they're a family
what optimism to be a father in this world
while angry citizens march in the street,
the elderly fall by the wayside, toppled by Coronavirus,
a President who destroys everything that
catches his gaze
what optimism to hold a small baby, wishing
her 70. 80. 90 years of good health and happiness
in this world, this world that we are destroying
an optimism that we will save it and that
she will have her own daughter one day
in a different world.

Anti/non/racist

I'm learning that I am a racist
having grown up here, in America where
whiteness is the ocean we swim in, the air
we breathe, we cannot avoid it
I am a racist
it pains me in spite of reassurances
that it's not my fault that I see the world this way
having been taught that black people are somehow
less than whites, more violent, predators, poor
because they somehow deserve it.
These are the lessons in America,
I learned them, unwittingly, unwillingly
and now, it's time to unlearn, to shed the
shackles of misinformation, to do something
to make a difference, to respect, to help
for god's sake, to help
we have done so much
to hurt.

George Floyd

I couldn't watch the video of
that white knee on that black neck,
or hear the words, "I can't breathe"
because I have heard it before, I have seen
this, the black man under the white foot,
it happens every day in white America
to Martine, when a man driving by tells her
to go back to Africa
to my neighbor who gets cornered by police
while picking up trash in his yard
and they live within a few blocks of me.
I can't bear it anymore, to see Sam sobbing
in the Naropa grounds
because the hurt goes so deep.
I can't stand it anymore
it's time for change;
it's time to learn;
it's time to vote;
it's time.