Some poetic thoughts on the pandemic, social distancing, protests, shelter in place orders, and the other hard news I’ve heard and witnessed this week.

These days the American dream feels more like an American nightmare
I sit and watch the news watching the talking heads
Pitting facts and science against opinions and politics
Governors walking us through pandemic data points at press conferences
throwing wrench shaped solutions into the ether of bureaucracy hoping to fix it
Our president the hot mess in chief fumbling through words
A pinnacle of inexperience and misunderstanding
The poster boy for white mediocrity
I can’t even find comfort in wondering what the founding fathers of this country would say to all of this, how their intent could give us guidance or a sensible answer
There was not a black or brown person or a vagina among them…
Their intent doesn’t have the answer anymore
I have already lost faith in the idea of check and balance
Protesters storming capital buildings with guns
or squatting in front of gyms with American flags
screaming give me gains or give me death
demanding to be given the freedom to make us all sick
Churches vowing to open anyway despite orders to not convene
emboldened by a sense of misplaced righteousness
God please come get your flock!
Give them a stern talking to about what is what 

Black men and boys are still being shot for jogging,
driving, playing, existing while black
brown babies in cages still separated from parents
their mamis and papis also in cages
And I don’t know what kind of prayer am I supposed to say for all this?
Where do I begin to unravel the ways we’ve lost our way?
How do I ask the god for clarity?
Too many parts of the system remain broken
White folks see movement towards equity and stop it, block it, defund it, supress it…
Some folks get asked to stay home to protect others and and they call it oppression?
Where do I begin to ask for help?
What can my tiny little insignificant prayer do?
The more aware of it all I am the more powerless I feel 

All I can do is give thanks
Thanks to cell phone cameras and the hands that hold them
for capturing the pictures that corroborates thousands of words
the data and evidence that what is happening to black lives in this country is real
not situational, not one time things, not just a few bad apples in police forces,
It’s a problem that keeps happening and so you film
May your hands be steady and you phone memory be abundant
Thanks to the nonprofit sector for finding ways to step in even when the odds are working against them and funds are dwindling for everyone
Thanks to the teachers and parents who are stewarding our babies
young minds growing up in a pandemic trying to learn about life
and fractions and history and reading and social distance…
Thanks to scientists and doctors and researchers who continue to work on bringing facts to the forefront… I don’t fear you, I admire you
You are in the business of documenting the proof that the divine things god created around us are complex, thoughtfully designed, and not up for debate…

God, the creator, Allah… whatever you choose to call the higher power
created all of this around us and made it complex on purpose
It was created to be studied
Created to gather proof
Created to give us answers
No matter what opinion or politics or religion say….
Nothing anyone says is going to change my mind about one thing:
This pandemic is the earth trying to right itself, make itself whole again,
and rid itself of the idea that science is debatable.
It’s not.
Its a divine creation 

So to those that say this corona virus is a hoax
Please tell that to the nurses and doctors and workers in ERs across the country
Tell that to the people who have lost loved ones
Tell that to the janitors and fast food workers who are now risking their lives
to clean the places you demand access to and cook the burgers you demand to eat
Tell that to the cashiers at the grocery stores that are out of toilet paper
Tell that to the cities running out of places to store the dead bodies they are collecting
Tell that to the creator and see what plague is sent our way next

Thanks for reading

-D