A Post-Election Poem

A Post-Election Poem November 13, 2016

Ahnnalise Stevens-Jennings

I want you to keep my name out of your mouth.

It doesn’t matter where you go, East, West,  North, or South,

you’ve got at lot to say about me.

I’m everything you need. I hold the key,

to your success,

but all you leave me with is fear.

What comes next?

Are you actually going to fix all the broken windows,

broken lives, broken families, broken hearts?

You want me to think this is where the solution starts.

Here, with a vote for you,

but really, when you look at me, what you see is revenue.

We all know it’s true.

If you don’t believe me, then go and ask the Standing Rock Sioux.

They want to know what you are going to do.

You, our new President.

Why don’t you go speak to a resident

of Flint, Michigan.

Take a look at the state they are living in.

I think this whole election is a sin

Go visit a Syrian child,

at home, praying for days that are mild.

With no drones flying overhead.

No longer running home to see which family members are dead.

Will you heal the damage you have done?

Or will you walk away like this was all a hit and run?

There you are standing in your tower.

You need to die to power.

Die to self.

Take your pride and set it on a shelf,

and while you are at it, do the same with your wealth,

Because you have more money than God,

and isn’t it odd?

I find it quite funny,

that if God had all of your money

She would give it all away.

And wouldn’t it be a sight to behold,

if no one, no matter how young or how old,

would ever have to be told

to spend their lives outside in the cold.

You have a bad relationship with greed.

That’s a problem our nation does not need.

No, not here where hatred is growing like a weed.

If we want to succeed,

we have to plant a seed

a seed of peace, a seed of love.

We have got to look above.

Let me be clear,

if we want to move beyond fear,

then we need to draw near

to the one who holds us dear.

There is only One who can deal with our collective anxiety.

That’s what we can do with all our vital piety.

Point our terrified and divided society

to the only one who can quietly

still our hearts.

That is where it actually starts,

with the One who is the Beginning and the End,

the One for whom every knee will bend,

because no matter how many inaugurations we all attend

there is only one solution to the pollution of our hated and sin,

and in the end we know our God is going to win.

Holy one, may it be so, Amen .


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