The wonderful mary g. writes a substack called What Now? Each week she gives a prompt with lovely thoughts, background, and explanations and those of us that care to write. Prompts are such a wonderful way to write when you don’t know what to write about or you do know what to write about but the words won’t come.
This week, since Wednesday, my mantra has been “Don’t give into despair. Refuse to be numb, refuse to be depressed.” Still the few words I’ve written have been gobbledy gook. So today, in planning for some writing with my writing group, I decided to do mary’s prompt for this past Monday.
What is an ode, you are asking. Mary’s definition is: “a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.”
So here is my ode, unedited, but the best thing I’ve been able to express since waking up Wednesday morning. Of course, it’s not really an Ode. Nothing is elevated.
An Ode to the Democratic Party
America has spoken. It was not even close.
The people voted, they walked to booths, and they sent in ballots.
They said they don’t care if a president is a felon.
They said they don’t care if a president has been impeached
They said they don’t care if a president spreads hatred and violence.
They said they don’t want a woman as president
They said they’ve had it with the Democrats
They said they love the orange man
Dear Democratic Party
Don’t point fingers, don’t turn on each other looking to blame
I love you
I love what you stand for
But clearly we are out of step.
From here in France, it was a great campaign
But you assumed the average American cares about democracy,
understands the stakes
For the average American WWII was in the Middle Ages
Fascism is just a word with no meaning.
America has voted
The people are very clear what they want
It’s not what you want
It’s not what I want
I no longer recognise the country I was born in
I don’t belong
This is not a blip, something to be corrected if you just find the right cardidate.
Open your eyes, dear Democratic Party
Unblock your ears
Don’t point fingers at each other
Take inventory. Accept that this is America
Until you accept, you won’t know what to do next
You’ll do the same old, same old.
Be patient, accept and wait
Mistakes will be made
Be patient and pull together
Wait for the cracks
Be patient but attentive
Caligula brought down a Roman era
Wishing to be a god did not make him so.
Our Caligula will fly too close to the sun
Maybe not in my lifetime
Maybe not in yours
Be patient but be prepared.
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A bientôt,
Sara
Out My Window 