Shit's been hard, so here are two poems for you

Something true and something kind: "Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben, & Aunt Jemima" (Frank X. Walker) & "Gravity" (Lee Herrick)

The bartender says, I could stand in the middle

of Main Street and kill somebody

and I wouldn’t lose any voters.

Butterworth says, then I’ll take eight bullets

in my sleep. Ben says choke me to death

with your knee. Jemima says,

lock me in a holding cell and say

I decided to hang myself.

—read Frank X. Walker’s “Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben, & Aunt Jemima,” up at the Poetry Foundation. It’s representative of the poet’s great capacity for writing the satirical poems we need.

In the evenings, when he imagines clouds
landing on the ground like tumbleweeds

in the middle lane, he is certain that gravity
will rule the day and that all those words

he has lofted into the air—hope and love
and a woman’s name he will someday marry—

will land in someone’s backyard and inspire
something kind, something extraordinary,

like a soft tiny cloud, landing
in the palm of your hand.

— read “Gravity” here, at Word Tech Editions. It’s tender and lovely.

This is America (Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)

What I really wanted to share with you was “Revolution,” from Scar and Flower; if you have that book, flip to page 41 now: “The revolution broke out/ in your very own heart.”