RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE
The Grudge
For
as long as memory holds
I
have held a grudge against
The
great state of Texas
The
state that gave us George Dubya Bush
And
the never-ending wars
The
state that gave us Enron
As
its energy consortiums skimmed
Billions
upon billions from California
Oregon
and Washington
I
have held a grudge against Texas
For
holding back progress
For
mass incarceration
For
climate change denial
For
immigration hypocrisy
For
corporate corruption
For
institutional inequality
For
a cowboy mentality
I
have held a grudge against Texas
For
Lee Harvey Oswald
The
book depository
And
the infamous grassy knoll
(who
could ever forget
the
grassy knoll?)
I
held onto that grudge a long time
Before
I realized
The
grudge was holding onto me
Before
I understood
People
are pretty much the same
Texans
are not to blame
So
much as greed
And
hatred
And
envy
And
the need for revenge
The
need to be better than
Foolish
Texas pride
(not
so different than California’s)
It’s
the way we were raised
What
we learned in school
What
our parents handed down
Along
with family photos
Stories
and fairy tales
We
were taught the ways of war
Of
us versus them
Of
good against bad
Of
north against south
Of
east against west
Red
against blue
And
black against white
But
somewhere along the way
We
picked up empathy
When
the quake hit LA
It
shook us all
When
Paradise went up in flames
We
all cried
When
tornadoes ripped across
The
Oklahoma plains
We
shared the horror
When
Katrina struck New Orleans
We
all suffered
When
the towers fell
We
all mourned
Now
Texas feels the blow
Of
a relentless winter storm
And
Texas is not alone
We
must all carry the burden
We
are Americans
We
are humans
We
are inhabitants of a small planet
We
are one
