A Walk in My Neighborhood

A Dark Day



Shutesbury Massachusetts: I took this photo in 1969

A dark day - and ironically, a very bright morning. The gardens froze last night,
and when the sun hit the golden/chartreuse leaves of the mulberry
trees that ring our yard, each and every leaf dropped to the
ground, one by one, leaving the bare limbs reaching to the sky.
An unusual brightness, naked feeling, exposing
us to the street - on a morning I would prefer to hide under the
covers and pretend this didn't happen. Wish this didn't happen.
Four more years. America has spoken.

*******************************

A poem by Hafiz seems appropriate, as we
realize that life is full of unexpected turns...here's the Sufi
perspective...

Cast All Your Votes For Dancing

I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.

I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.

But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.

You can stay that way
And even bloom!

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions’ beautiful laughter.

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved
And, my dear,
From the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.

Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.

***************************

It is a dark day in America. The election process which
we hold so dear has been hijacked. Power never accedes to
the powerless - and this is especially true today.

Last night I watched the returns state-by-state on the
computer, and I was elated to see Kerry winning many
states. As the hours passed however, the numbers shifted and
changed places. Bush/Cheney won, inexplicably. While exit polls
have been accurate within a percentage point past elections, this
time the exit polls didn't match the e-voting results.
Somehow, the voters who said they voted for Kerry actually
voted for Bush!

New Mexico came out for Kerry, stirred to political life for hope of change.
Thousands of volunteers got the vote out, and people were in line in
droves to vote the terrorists out of office and make a statement
against the war in Iraq. What happened to those votes? We
wuz robbed. It was very smooth - not as sloppy as 2000 - but
there is NO WAY Bush won New Mexico! NM was a Blue state for Gore,
despite the fact that 12% of NM voted Green, for Nader in 2000 --
somehow the BROWN vote came out a horse of a different color.

The Florida election was delivered to digital manipulation. Ohio
was this election's Florida. Diebold, anyone?
Greg Palast's article "1 Million Kerry Votes Already Stolen"
was published before the election, and I really did not want to believe it.

Yet despite massive voter fraud across the nation with the "optical scan" black-box
voting problems, still it seems, not enough people voted
for Kerry to make it impossible to fix. It was lost by the
campaign which couldn't challenge the flood of negativity unleashed.
Truthfully, he lost me when he faced the cameras and barraged us with
"I will HUNT down and KILL the terrorists..." - but the majority of
Americans apparently thought he was a weak leader.

There was not the hoped-for landslide of intelligent, concerned, truly
compassionate humans sufficient enough to offset the huge Red zone in the
Heartland of America. The people who care about the underclass - the
economy - the environment - a women's right to choose- where is their vote? Perhaps the polarization is so total, we might call for
a divorce of Red from Blue - see My Modest Proposal - U.S.A.R.
Certainly, nearly 60 million people did vote for Bush, and they are getting
the government they deserve.

But I don't think we deserve it. The millions
of people who voted their conscience, worked their hearts out for change
don't deserve it to be hijacked by too many rednecks. You've seen the
Springer show? That's Amerika, apparently.



Our country has been stolen by the corporate media, sold to the
sheeple, and that is the end of democracy. We have seen an Orwellian future
become our present time, horrifically risen to unprecedented power.
Time to find a lost coral reef, and snorkel.

Link to The Daily Show - on election results

See also Coty's Radio Weblog for the Purple States - another way of looking at the distribution of consciousness in the US -
and where the potential for change may lie...Link to the raging celt for more..11/05/04

This poem now marks the turning point wherein
I let go of having Noah, my adorable grandson,
at the bottom of this page. He will now drop off -
so IF you want to see Noah, go to the 9/12-9/17page
in the Archives -- meanwhile, I am compelled to post
this poem I got email this morning, and begin to let
go of the Dark Day and all that. It spoke to me.
So here it is:

POEM FROM LAST YEAR - Poetry Daily

INTEGER VITAE

The beautiful gray dog
loping across the lawn
all afternoon for the sheer
joy of summertime,

bees at their balm, the dragonfly
asleep on a raspberry leaf-
that's how we'd live
if living were enough

innocent, single-hearted
like the mourning dove who's called
his mate in the cool dawn
from one pine for a thousand years.

These do not wake in tears
nor does deception drive them
down to the blue pond
where the beaver, prince

of chaos, who appeared
alone as if from nowhere
is tirelessly constructing
his dark palace of many rooms.


Katha Pollitt
(c) 2003 by the Paris Review.