November 20, 2025
I have been out of the United States since October 1, on a “quest,” if you will. It’s part business, part personal, and high on the reflective scale. Watching what’s happening in the USA from afar is absolutely gut-wrenching. Everything I value – a free media, education, libraries, intellectual property rights, civil liberties, COMPASSION, and so much more – is all being devoured.
And of the close to 350 million people who are citizens there, 70 plus million are terrified, 70 plus million are elated, and the the other 210 plus million don’t know, or don’t care.
The Thing Is
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again
photo by Mel Lindstrom
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