Maybe

Maybe

Everything is dependent on something else,
which is dependent on many others, many times
out of our control from the first step.
History repeats, and it almost always rhymes.

Maybe we can clean up our government, maybe not.
Maybe we will like what we get after the fact, it’s rare, but real.
You get what you get despite getting upset.
We will likely end up on the smaller end of the deal.

We want what we want without knowing what we have,
or how we can turn may-be into will-be.
We demand to drain the swamp, rid ourselves of rot,
meanwhile daily setting more alligators free.

Maybe having Big Daddy Orange Swamp feeder
be the one to direct the drainage of our political bog
is kind of a big "fox in the henhouse" type of gamble.
Leaving our future left to ripen under a mossy log.

Maybe we don't want to live under a dictatorship.
Maybe we want women, and black, and brown, and yellow, and red,
and gay, and other, and weird, and unique, to be part of America.
Maybe we refuse to be ruled, instead we demand to be led.

Maybe we can feed the old and sick, not throw money at problems.
Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, thrifty but giving every need due care.
Maybe we drain the swamp with an honest man in charge, for a change?
We can overcome the swamp-rats who prevent our getting here to there.

We drain the swamp together, each of us, armed with a bucket named Vote,
Chasing the beasts away with resolve and our collective iron will.
We have to come together, stop dumping on each other, splashing in rage,
or we will drown together - maybe we won’t - but maybe we will.

-----

Shared with DVerse Poets for their OLN on the night of the last of the Jan. 6 Congressional Hearings, regarding the traitor we voted into the Oval.

We did it to ourselves, kids.


©2020 Christopher Reilley I would love to know what you thought about this piece.

Please consider leaving a comment.