Our Forgotten Dreams

Charliner North promised me
She had saved up rubies in pickle jars...
Promises to be kept-
Lost among dilapidated Cincinnati row houses
And the faded deco tiles of Midwestern decline
Where those drinking the strychnine
Saw the Holy Ghost!
And old men drank scotch watching the plasma screens-
RFK dies in '68 deep beneath 2008
In a subway bar next to Ohio Books
Rows of shelves reminding us quietly
Of a past of greater depths, despite the pain.
Pain I still felt riding that bus home-
With others- normal, poor and backpacked
Riding to Washington to watch the World change.
Politics aside, the morality shifted...
As we took note of a prayer shedding real
And not imaginary tears...
The tide turned in the sunlight-
Our histories, our families, our violations transcended
Began to matter again,
Giving birth to overcoming hope-
"A new birth of freedom" in all its complexity-
Renewing vows
As the veil of the simpletons lifted
The thinking people valuated good
And we tasted and saw the future again.
In a moment where philosophy fails,
The emptiness of "new ideas" midwifes the birth of old ones,
And all is rediscovered.

cjk 2009