Gerald Dillenbeck | + Follow Poet |
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Red and Trueblue Family--2

My dear Siblings,

I voted for Hillary. 
I would have preferred Bernie, 
but she agreed to much of his platform-especially universal health care and education and seemed to be cognizant of environmental/climate change issues and bonus--she's a woman!

How I feel now? I am still haunted by the sound of my millennial son as he stood in the shower the morning after the election, 
sobbing, 
grief stricken, 
mourning the loss of freedom and safety for many of his friends of different races, 
nationalities, 
sexual identities 
and religions. 
I am both immensely proud of him and fear for him 
when I remember him coming out of the bathroom after that gut wrenching and utterly hopeless outpouring of tears. 
He wore the look of a young man going off to war 
and declared his allegiance and his personal protection to all those now named targets of hatred.

I'm not sure that I would have the courage to be a millennial now.
 
I recently watched about 20 snapping turtle hatchlings emerge, one by one, from a small hole in the sand bank above the pond and embark on a hilarious topsy-turvey tumble down the embankment and disappear into the dark stillness under the lush green vegetation of the shallow water. 

Along the way some of them appeared to die. 
At one point, the lifeless forms were starting to pile up near the exit hole of the nest and I feared for those still waiting for their turn to feel the sunlight on their faces. 

What amazed me was to see how these little creatures responded to each other. 
One would walk right over the top or lightly brush up against the side of an apparently dead sibling 
and suddenly they were moving along together. 
I imagined one saying to the other, 
"Come on. You can do it. Don't stop now." 
or maybe "I'll race you", 
like I used to say to Jeremy when I wanted him to move faster. 

I was relieved and very satisfied when the last one slipped into the pond; 
a proud midwife.

I can only hope that the extreme disregard for the Earth and all  her creatures, 
including human beings, 
that is spewing out of our political system and corporations 
will incite all of us to a new way of being; 
to getting everybody to the pond.

Lovingly,
Kerry

Copyright © Gerald Dillenbeck | Year Posted 2017

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