The Morning After

Sunlight crashed through my window
this morning, cloaked as a
lightning bolt ramming my eyelids
open.
It carried a question:
Inherent goodness in humans,
it cackled in my ear,
Finally, you see the folly
in that belief?

Blinding rays seared my exposed
skin, yet I felt no
pain.
Tears rolled down
my cheeks refusing to trigger
sorrow.
My heart, brain, gut, soul
now hollowed out,
shrivelled like
those carved pumpkins
littering frost-kissed porches
long past
the end of October.
(On a sunny day like today, they will stink.)

Mimicking an automaton
raising a coffee cup to
my lips, I taste nothing.
Yet this armor of
numb is pierced by my
overwhelming resolve,
my eternal conviction
about a pedigree of
love and altruism somewhere
in all human souls.
Therefore:
my answer to
that wrecking ball of a
question.

Label me if you want,
with a title reflecting
your mocking and patronizing:
Pollyanna, why not?
after witnessing the sheer number of
the duped and deluded
on November third.
Almost half the population
joined his cult
some time ago now,
Jimmy-Jones devotion pales
in comparison.

Steadfast, I insist
hope and charity will
always triumph at some point
because you know,
Yoda and the Force prevail,
Darth Vader does not keep on
winning.

Still, I will give you
this, a question I cannot
reconcile with a positive spin:
Greed.
It has been communing with us
forever, expanding in hearts.
A Grow Monster
shaped like a crocodile
bobbing in
an ocean for hundreds of years.
Explaining much about time-rooted
perplexing things, especially
what we observed
unfolding only three days into
November, at the voting place.

Greed, in its various forms
engulfing, vying to
obliterate integrity and
benevolence.
Sanity, healthcare, life, honesty,
decorum, inclusion, democracy
kicked out the window.

I tremble with fear
today as a
sour flavor of
nausea curdles up
my parched throat,
dreading a possible conclusion that
Greed
has no off switch.

© Suzanne V. Tanner, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

A special thanks to J.D. Harms. Sometime ago you sent out a prompt: No off switch. This is one of a handful of drafts I wrote from your inspiration. More soon.

Thanks again for your time, my dear reading and writing friends. If you wish to reach me by email: vtanme@gmail.com.