A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Lesléa Newman
The Morning After
The mean man won
she has to tell
her daughter who rushes
into the kitchen hungry
for breakfast and news.
How? The child stops
in the doorway, face
dissolving into a mass
of tears and disbelief.
That’s not fair! Mom,
he’s a bully! How
to explain to her,
or to herself how
this could have happened?
It’s okay, it’s okay.
She rocks her daughter,
her soothing words not
soothing either of them.
And now what? Cereal
and milk? Work? School?
Crawl under the covers
for four dreary years?
She was raised by
a mother who always
said, there’s no problem
so terrible it can’t
get worse. Are you
happy now? she asks
her long dead mother
who loved being right
though in this case
she might have loved
being wrong though wrong
she is not. But
right now she is
the mother, the motherless
mother of a distraught
daughter who needs her
to dry her tears
slip on her shoes
pour her Lucky Charms
into a yellow bowl
bright as a promise
and somehow explain how
the mean man won.
Lesléa Newman is the author of 87 books for readers of all ages including the memoirs-in-verse I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father; the novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; and the children’s books Sparkle Boy, Heather Has Two Mommies, and Joyful Song: A Naming Story. Her literary awards include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, and the Massachusetts Book Award. She is a past poet laureate of Northampton, MA.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.
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