Mending the Broken World

If you haven’t noticed
we are living in a broken world
where the Kingdom of America
is crumbling all around us.
We are the inventor of suspicion—
tea parties and horsemen
in the night
meant to protect
and defend
walk endlessly
away from Walden Pond
and that much hope.
Time now exposes all
our private scars—
near deaths
that act like theft
to our innocent
new beginnings.

Time now measures
the distance we have run
away from simplicity
and frugal ideals
that made our armor
trustworthy and shining
with courage to do the right thing.

I have noticed
the language of change
must be our famous last words
of men and the water of life that alone
will heal the deepest wounds of greed.
We must not shrink in the shadows of mistrust
wagging her scolding finger in our faces—
this mother spooning cod liver oil
into the mouth of Darwin’s Disorder.

Instead, let us smile,
pick up our hammers of truth and compassion,
while we get back to mending our broken fences.