Rome is Burning

When a child must explain

Truth and Science

To world leaders.

When our President

Mocks those who are disabled,

Or foreign,

Or female.

When elected officials

Refuse to work together

To stop school shootings

Because they fear the NRA.

When black parents

Across the country

Must tell their sons

To keep their hands up

And say “Yes, Sir”

No matter what.

When a family must choose

Between food and medicine.

When schools rely

On bake sale funding.

When it is necessary to lobby 

For a “living wage”.

(Translation: Millions of Americans

Earn a “dying wage”.)

It would be easy to go on.

America is burning.

Lay the fiddles down. 

Published in Lucky Jefferson, April 2020