DC Reflections: Slamming Poetic

Here are some thoughts that I had as I pondered my experience in DC. Dedicated to all of you who read this and probably many that won't. Presented in a sort of poetic style, different than my typical prose entries.

Reflections. Not quite what the title refers to, but maybe.

My time in the district draws to a close

I’ve been here not long, but enough to compose

I wish I could stay, but the best I can do is promise to come back

I’ve got other places to be, people to see, promises to keep.

Part of me will stay here, in the streets where I walked

On the poles of the metro, the rail on the escalators, and through the metal detectors

It doesn’t really make sense, but it’s true.

The little things will remind me of my word.

I am drawn to the city, with its gridlock and partisan politicking

The frustration pulls me in, grabbing hold of me and keeping me here

I can’t let go, I can’t look away.

Like a train wreck about to happen, I’m glued to the scene

What’s next?

Why?

I’m disillusioned and disenchanted with the system.

Disheartened with the brokenness.

Politics is a religion and I’ve lost my faith.

Yet I can’t get out.

Some spark of belief remains.

A tiny flame, waiting to be blown into something more.

The spark withstands the torrential downpours of discouragement.

I walk the gilded halls of the Capitol, and something stirs within.

It feels right.

It feels true.

Whatever that means.

How can the building feel true?

Is it the building that gives the feeling of truth?

Or is it what those gilded, tiled floors represent?

The spirit of freedom lives.

In the quiet hours, when the press are silent and the Tea Party’s over, I can feel something there.

It feels true. There’s no other way to put it.

Life.

Liberty.

And the Pursuit of Happiness.

Those things still ring true in those tourist-worn corridors.

And maybe that’s why I have to come back.

To pick up and brush off the dream that’s been trampled and forgotten.

To put aside the left and the right and find the American.

I know we’re there, waiting to explode our powers.

When the moments right, we’ll be ready.

We’re waiting.

Hoping for the day to come when that arc of the moral universe bends all the way toward justice.

I’ve got to do my part.

Grab a hold of that arc and pull it down, bringing it right up to Lady Justice.

We’ve all got something to do.

And we can only do it together. I need you.

The Moral Universe needs you.

To stop injustice everywhere- You are needed.

Really? I sometimes ask myself.

What can I do?

I’m just a tall, scrawny, privileged white guy

How can I fight the system?

I am the system.

I don’t want to destroy myself.

But, I can change myself.

Follow those wise words- ‘be the change you want to see in the world’.

I can change. Changing the system, bit by bit.

That drive, that hope for change.

That’s the real spark.

That’s what keeps my faith going.

Not words on a page.

Not the works of the top dogs.

But the goodness and realness of you. All of you.

Thank you.