Really? Really? After all that History We chose THIS America? Really?
Passing a ranch home in Salem today, kind of an Industrial shade salmon, behind a stockade Fence with a few slats akimbo, hung A tattered and semi-folded sign which assured, “Trump Was Right About Everything”,
Really? Really? Did they drink the bleach and live? Or think Pence should have hung? E. Jean Carrol and all the rest are liars?
Right about Everything? Right to discredit the honor of being American, Envy of the world, from the home of freedom? Right To steal our pride in our history? Right to bow to dictators? Right to betray our allies? Right to coddle Our enemies? Right by losing our status As The Most Powerful Nation? Right to send the country into chaos? Right to make Our government a morally bankrupt mockery? Our commitment to Truth has vanished, with our Integrity, With our Decency, with our Character, With our Compassion. Right? Really? Really?
Who will elicit more respect, who will have more influence, Once we relinquish our Honesty, who in the world Fills that void? It would be Good to learn Cyrillic, get fluent in Mandarin.
Right? Really? To endanger the planet To reap the rewards? Right? The robber barons have won, now rich fools rule the land. Catastrophe has found a home in this Corrupted, dark, and greedy America.
A short time ago, I found a writer Who thought his foray into aging as Like “being on the off-ramp of life”, And that image has stuck with me, so Accessible, so common, and ever so relatable, Having turned seventy-one. Imagine. Really? After five years of covid, isolate in the west, I feel the slowing traffic Lining up for the off ramp, I look through the windshield, see the rest Speed on by. Good luck, safe trip,
Looks like a lot of bad road ahead.
I’m a sorry witness to this dreadful dissolution, This disavowal, of our history, our democracy, Our people, and our future. Really. Really.
James Garland Poetry 