“On a Night in November” (by Guest Poet Matthew Price)

On a Night in November

Broke schools holding broken buildings

Children cuffed ‘n’ chided, not cherished

 

Poverty pummeling the poor,

Holding back hopes of higher learning

 

Division in the Democracy, Rifts wracking the Republic

Causing cracks through-which kids collapse

 

Expensive! Exorbitant! Executives exclaim

As others struggle with cents and senators spend savings.

 

The world wages weaponless wars over

Test scores and teacher success

 

Charters challenge the entrenched

Luck laying low or lifting up.

 

Little weight has been lifted from the fateful burden

Students still struggle and schools are still short-staffed

 

College seniors in our class are seated—after the possible solutions

Questions come more quickly than the fix

 

As one I wonder how this wrecking  wave can be withstood

 

My vocation can be a voice of change

Either speaking peace or spewing sides

 

And I see how the silent side with the spirit of inaction

But one soul can speak to another and odds swing inverse

 

In communities there can be a call to action, crying

Stop, stand, support what is still. See how others have stood

 

My heart hopes for future healing, though slim be hope while looking at this hour

But prior to its approach, passionate people pitted themselves in defense

 

Their determination demanding no deserting now

But work and wait and witness a wakening to wonder.