BY SHARON MARTIN
I’m white,
healthy,
comfortable
with my middle-class trappings,
but today
your despair is my despair,
Child
taken at the border,
orphaned by deportation.
Refugees
from violence and hunger,
willing to chance
a thousand-mile journey, starting
with nothing.
My friend’s transgender son,
a veteran
the president wants to erase.
Black folk
and poor folk
who can’t vote
because it’s not in some rich, white dude’s
best interest.
A country ruled
by a minority
who will do whatever it takes,
including cheat,
to keep power,
and I’m all out of hope.
Selfish of me,
because my feelings
can’t compare
with your despair,
and shouldn’t.
Hopelessness can fix nothing,
but our votes can.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. Her latest book, Not A Prodigal, is available through Barnes and Noble. Her recent children’s book, Froggy Bottom Blues, can be purchased in hardcover or paperback from Doodle and Peck Publishingand in paperback from Amazon.
