NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day Eighteen

I had taken a week off my duties as Twitter-Aggregator (“I read twitter so you don’t have to!”) because sometimes you have to step back and regroup. Now it’s time to get back to it and to start trying to exert pressure again to get things done. It ain’t easy being ignored (and what else would you call a non-response from elected officials). For better or worse hope springs up again like daffodils after a bad winter.

All the time I was growing up
people in the movies
generally
did the right thing,
rose to the moment,
made the hard choice,
and even the bad guys
murmured their regrets
and whispered love for mom
in their final moments.
These days, that slaps me
in the face with each request
to send a crucial letter
to text or fax appeals
for the action so needed.
Sure, I think, of course.
Of course I will do that.
And then I wonder why
thousands or millions of
messages and words are needed
for a trusted leader
to do the right thing.
And that is the hardest
loss of all – where did it go
that “do the right thing?”
I don’t pretend that
movies are just like life
but if I have to ask you
to do the right thing
over and over and over
maybe I’m just asking
the wrong person.