Wish...

 © 24 November 2020, the Griot Poet

My wish,

Is for all of you to have a safe Thanksgiving,

Because I want you in the land of the living,

 

We have a clear cause-and-effect,

Hacking COVID loogies in six feet distances,

The economy is teetering on a total wreck,

Sick Mexicans can’t pick fruit and vegetables,

Ill frontline African Americans can’t resurrect you during intubation in a pandemic,

 

My wish,

Is that you take all precautions:

Wear a mask, wash your hands; socially distant,

Keep a mental list of where you’ve been,

THINK about someone other than yourselves:

It’s called empathy.

We used to have this patriotic sympathy,

 

In WWII, we had “Meatless Tuesday,”

When all Americans - Asian, Black, Hispanic, White,

Picket fences and redlined, urban blight,

Went vegan for one day a week,

To fill the C-rations of GI’s overseas,

 

My wish,

Is this holiday,

We recall the sacrifices of Americans in the “greatest generation.”

That by racist designs didn’t agree with each other,

But did agree to take on Adolf Hitler,

The Japanese Emperor,

And Mussolini,

 

The Rat Patrol was an urban myth,

The British SAS was the basis for this,

But the mythology recalls a time

Even with constructed barriers: we can DO this!

 

My wish:

 

Wear a mask, wash your hands; socially distant,

Keep a mental list of where you’ve been,

We’re still not in 2020,

Where we should be,

We’re better now than back-of-the-bus then,

We did it before,

We can do it again.