Aftershocks
from Aftershocks, page 7
ISBN 1-931002-92-9
Petaluma, 2010
TV cameras panned bulked crowds
jacketed bodies
stamping their feet against numbness, clamping
cell phones to ears, waiting. We waited too,
watching them
When the balance tipped, favouring Obama
stunned Chicagoans cheered, yelled, clapped
their grateful hands
Lava rolled molten over the airwaves
from Eastern to mountain to Pacific
to the city that elected, then shot
Milk, where the Castro tasted bittersweet victory,
toasted nuptials with Barack, the sharp-suited bridegroom
ushered in while California read the banns
and found well-funded objections to
the love that dared proclaim its name
Earth parted like mercury, as the dream of ’63
echoed down the years
from Washington Mall to juvie hall
from Nairobi to North Carolina
from Oakland to Oahu
Jesse Jackson and countless, nameless others remembered,
recalled the price of the dream,
the Martins, the Malcolms, the Emmetts,
the unnamed but still counted
Tectonic plates shifted, the beginning of the end
for some, the end of the beginning for others
