for J Unterberg
In the picture on the news,
the little black girl holds a sign
that says, I’m your next president.
And in the grocery store,
the clerk smiles at me from behind her mask
and compliments my dress.
Consumed as I’ve been
with a sorrow so great
it swallowed our country whole,
I had thought it would take an energy
equally great and opposite
to pull me away from the bleak edge.
But then a stranger walked up to my car
where I was parked on the side of the road
to make sure I was okay. And just like that
I felt myself backing away from the edge,
just a bit, just a bit.
It can be so small, what reminds us
who we are—a people who want
to thrive, to live in peace,
a people who are kind to each other
not because we have earned it, but
because kindness is in our nature.
I want to vote for that little girl,
want to help create the just world she rises in.
I want to help someone else
back away from the edge,
just a bit, just a bit, another bit.
Rest assured; words will help people back from the edge.
oh for me, too, friend … thank you for affirming it. May you find your way back from the edge–may we all.
Amen to kindness.
To hope.
To smiles that emanate from the eye even when the mouth and cheeks are behind the masks, we wear to protect each other.
Because kindness matters.
And … I want to vote for that little girl, too.
And for the edges
To be safe places
Decked with flowers
And mended hearts.
Na’ama
amen to all of this, beautiful Na’ama Yehuda. Thank you.
xo