Adagio for Strings

06/05/2021

Ann, you wouldn’t believe

how rancorous it’s become

            In just the ten years you’ve been gone,

In this matter of life and death half the country

            Chose death,

And this Is just the pandemic, we haven’t even started to address

                                    What we’ve done to the planet,

                        When that issue rears its ugly head-

(Is already happening, is here)-

                        That it might have been tackled long ago,

            But we’re lazy, greedy,

Too immersed in other things, other issues,

                                    To pay attention,

                                                Like- what’s on tonight,

Let’s stop abortion,

                                    Let’s have a war,

Let’s drive over to the corner store

                        For a beer and a snack,

                                                            Turn up the a.c., it’s hotter than hell,

                                    And the stink of smoke, let’s get a new

                                                                        SUV, my hummer is parked at the

                                                                                    Curb.

The prognosis, as they say, is not good.

Floods filled subways and basements

and rivers and streets last week,

                        And a bunch of New Yorkers died, and

                                    Cars and drivers were swept away,

            And the west is on fire again this year, they had

                                    To evacuate Tahoe,

                                                And the Colorado is running dry,

                                                            And it was one-hundred and sixteen degrees

                                    In Salem last month, hotter than Riyadh,

                        And all the plants outside seared,

                                                And leaves turned brown and started coming off maples

                                                                        In August,

            But we’re not talking about that now, not yet,

Maybe never.

Half the country has gone insane,

But maybe they always were.

                                                                                                Remember sitting around

            The thanksgiving table with cranky old Mike, arthritic

                        Knees, and taking on beer, spouting misogyny and bigotry

                                                And venom and hatred,

                                    He brought you to tears before you ran from the room.

                        Well, it’s all like that now, our national discourse

                                    Is a street rumble, sharks and jets, and

            The liars and clowns that hold the fate of the world in those

                        Rabid, grasping paws choose to do nothing

                                    Except bicker, obfuscate, and steal all they can,

                                                                        While we- streaming the shows,

cartoons and superheroes saving the day,

                                                            Buying the newest, biggest, most convenient,

                                                The envy of the neighborhood,

                                                                                    And who won the big game?

Ann, remember way back, you were home from college,

            Offered to give me a ride to my graduation,

                                                                        You broke out a joint

                                                            And we smoked on the way over.

                        It was warm in the gymnasium, my face I’m sure

                                    Matched the crimson of the robe, and I wobbled a bit

                                                On the way to the podium,

                                                                        But it all went off without much of a hitch,

                                                            When the orchestra started to play,

                                                                        Bach- ‘Sleepers Awake’, I was

            Walloped by the beauty of it, still one of my favorite pieces,

                        Almost three hundred years old, this music, this warning,

                                    Bach tried, he tried,

but they still won’t awaken.