Already news radio overflows:
Ridiculous men with foaming minds
spout rabid rhetoric.
Everybody else
wounded but walking,
spent the day shopping.
Our children haven’t changed.
in snowsuits tucked in shopping carts,
overtired,overheated,overhyped on holiday as ever.
But we are people
Shaken suddenlyroughly from sleep for this moment
We are awake.
You hear it
In every mall and Walmart for this moment
No matter how hungrywhinybored the children
We calm them,in this cracked open moment,
with patience. We smile at each other
over the tops of their crankysweaty heads
despite and because
of all we’re reminded to cherish.
When you tune out news and tinny carols,
The fallout roars. We’re singing as loud as we can.
Puff Of Smoke Poems 