day ELEVEN

the wave

school bus

stuck at a red light

the little girl waves to me from her seat

and, oh my, how her mother has her

overdressed on this unseasonable day

snowcap and a big pink jacket

but she’s a cute kid

still panting from my morning run

i stop my pacing and give her a wave back

she sits there and smiles at me

this ever-loving hallmark scene

red lights take forever

to change in this neighborhood

i don’t know what to do

she keeps waving, so i keep waving

heartwarming, i guess

but i can’t stop thinking about how fucked that kid is

how much we’ve screwed up the world for her

endless wars and partisan politics

sixty-six degrees in the dead of winter

polar ice caps melting

ice shelves the size of delaware falling into the ocean

droughts and epidemics galore

people dying of hunger because of decisions made

by thoughtless bastards in cheap suits

living half the world away

on top of that us adults have given her

a certifiable, infantile lunatic as president

kid, there really ain’t too much to be happy about this morning

we were all supposed to have been better than this

yet it turns out we’re as bad as bad can be

we’re lucky to have our health these days

come to think of it i don’t really feel all that good

still you keep smiling and waving

and i’ll keep smiling and waving

we’ll pretend nothing is wrong in this demented lullaby

at least until that light has changed

and you go off to wherever it is you’ll go

and i’ll go back to pacing around in a circle

trying to calm my breath and heart

sniffing all of that

wondrous car exhaust

as the birds sing out loud

their beautiful funeral dirge