Commentary:
It burst from people's mouths
germ-laden
polluting the air
with words that would
roam the earth forever
It ran amuck in the forest
consorted with poisonous plants
twisted vines into nightmares
trampled the flowers
that bent to the sun
It seeped from the sewers
swam past debris
rank with its own stench
It knew it's time would come
always primed
to harvest the hate
that lay dormant
in people's hearts
The “mask of civility”
many folks wore
was just that
a tattered facade
fraying, day by day
Not surprisingly
some people embraced it
welcomed it
at long last they were free
no need to pretend anymore
Hate was in,
as popular as
snow cones
and cold beers
in the summer heat
Hate was respectable
a contributing member to society
socially acceptable
as normal as white bread
It flew from the pulpits
spoke out at PTA meetings
was available at bake sales
as American as apple pie
Politicians danced around it
with carefully chosen words
and ignorant comments and tweets
“Let's repeal the 19th amendment”
“Let's ban all Arabs”
“Let's keep Jews in their place”
“Let's flood us prisons”
with young Black men”
“Let's deport all Mexicans”
“Let's stigmatize
those bleeding heart liberals
who always get in our way”
“Let’s take back the rainbow”
that shelters gays
and transgenders
They are using too much of it
But, somewhere
a persistent voice resonated,
"Hate cannot drive out hate.
Only love can do that.”*
I wish I could still believe that.
* the Reverend Martin Luther King
June 2016, revised August 2017