2.14.23

It’s Valentine’s Day
And Ohio is burning
It’s water poisoned
Pets and livestock dead
Locals and first responders left wondering who will play them on HBO

It’s Valentine’s Day
And in Michigan kids are shot in school
Again
Maybe, finally, thoughts and prayers are not enough
But then again

It’s Valentine’s Day
And Tennessee is making trans people and drag queens illegal
Questions of genitalia and clothing
Unintended consequences for those who don’t follow politics
Or depressingly maybe they do

It’s Valentine’s Day
And California is bulldozing the homeless
A routine street clean up with the stench of heartlessness
It’s not a slum or shanty town if there is no shelter
Self imposed blindness to the dispossessed

It’s Valentine’s Day
And Florida does what Florida does
The onwards march towards fascism
Unnoticed by those who do not read and seek to ban books

It’s Valentine’s Day
And a family in New Jersey is mourning the Suicide of their 14 year old daughter
Bullying by classmates for content and betrayal by school indifference
A resignation does not exchange for a life

It’s Valentine’s Day
And I’m fucking angry at the state of the states
How can you be aware without causing hysteria?
We look into the abyss clutching red hearts and pink cards
Living the jackpot
Awareness in retrospection

It’s Valentine’s Day
And this poem is not about me
Or the gas shortage and weather in Las Vegas
Tears of the numb and the distracted
Words into the void

But of course, it’s Valentine’s Day

_{Image by Dianne Clifford}