THE BROKEN THREAD

I was such a believer. Oh, how I believed!
The sun would shine again, the stars would twinkle,
the long night would be over and we would start anew.
Gone the wars, the torture, the bombs, the hideous inequities and disgraces perpetrated by his predecessor.

I dipped into my vanishing coffers and sent $10, $15, $25,
over and over again,
I called surly strangers in Ohio and hate-filled racists in Pennsylvania,
I wrote a song, "Grandmama for Obama,"
and paid from my meager pension to have it video-taped for YouTube.
I performed, I spoke, I leaflet-ed, I cajoled, I argued.

The pay-off was delicious!
There he stood in the full majesty of his brilliance and promise
and I wept with joy.

Months passed,
but we were still mired in Iraq, the Guantanamo occupation still flourished,
single payer was dropped, billions were given away to the financial thugs.
On and on the disappointments accumulated.
But, it's Him, the Great One, he will come through!
He WILL come through! He MUST come through!
I waited, clinging ever more desperately
to the flimsy thread that bound my faith to Him.

And, then came the news.
More troops to Afghanistan, he ordered.
More troops into the hopeless morass of the unwinnable war.
More needless death and destruction.
Why?
It was then that sadly, finally, the thread broke.