Hope

On the day after being pummeled 

By chaos and sorrows’ rags

In the town of antique shops,

Used clothing and book stores,

Coffee shops and cafes where

Neighbors chat in Springtime sun

And where my office has stood

Nearly three decades,

Where my parents lived happily

Until their deaths, the town

Where both sisters now live,

My building bereft, boarded up, in front

The Mexican restaurant with 

America’s biggest best tortas

In ruins, and the bank two blocks

Away where I was last inside

The day I withdrew my deceased

Girlfriend’s savings to share

With her brothers now shattered,

Steel beams twisted like pipe

Cleaners, collapsed and burned 

To the ground, on this Monday after

Such rage and violation and inconceivable 

Earthquaking of the social fabric,

I sit half-listening to Bill Evans creating

Jazz magic on piano in his ‘Peace Piece’ 

And half-smile wearily after sending 

Messages for change to mayors,

Chiefs of police, family and friends; yet underneath This fatigue there’s hope for 

Our common resurrection towards a more

Inclusive justice as the lily dormant

For months on the back patio

Begins its journey flowering 

After winter, peering up warily from damp 

Soil to lean with us all

Into life’s courageous

Flourishing again.