gentle touch

~inaugural poem, January 20, 2025

~in honor of Martin Luther King

i want to be this pink begonia
blooming on the coldest day of winter
blooming in the window sill
in spite of the looming cold

i want to be the fossil i hold:
enduring
reminding
this too shall pass

i want to be this silly finch
enraptured by a cold bath
i want to be amazed and amazed
by the simplest of things

i want to be the sounding gong
waking
—a warm hand
—a gentle touch

~

i want to remember what matters:

my mother who lived through the depression
who says they almost starved—
sometimes not even a chicken on sunday

my father who told of the holes
between the slats of his cabin
the cold wind whistling through
only the wallpaper to warm him

~

i want to live to see the day
when all of god’s children
will be able to sing
to sing & sing

when every well every belly is full
when every head rests in a soft warm bed
when we lead each other to the promised land
when we take each other hand in hand

& walk the good red road

Thanks to Rosemary Wahtola Trommer for the prompt to write poems for the 2025 inauguration since there will be no poem read at the ceremony. Her challenge: flood the airwaves with poems!

Namaste,

d

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