It was the year
Unimagined
Never forgettable

Friends became dangerous
Vectors of disease
Some harbingers of hatred

People masked or did not
Fearful faces
Kept their distance

Hope was hidden in houses
Made into make-shift offices
Schools and hospitals

For months, calendars counted
Days of incubation
Weeks of recovery

Jobs disappeared
Couples divorced
Children changed

On blue-lighted screens
Defiant white men unmasked
Their evil motives

Throngs in the streets
Called out peace officers
Who committed murder

Amid the tyranny and death
the people’s truth was lost
to addictive conspiracies

There were not enough
Tests or paychecks
Or hospital beds or hugs

Old and young and rich and poor
Struggled to breathe or died alone
Face-down in comas

Anguished families wondered
When it would all end
So they could be together

With a worsening rift in the union
Votes were counted and recounted
Democracy questioned

Amid slim victories
With historic outcomes
Vaccines began to arrive

As the mob boss went mad
Incited violent insurrection
His cult members complied

Rage took up its weapons
Inside the nation’s house
People and civility died

But the fragile democracy lived
And the people wept
And the law held

And given a reprieve
The nation believed again
And a new day dawned

by Anne McCrady

NEWSLINK: MSNBC, Reuters, CNN

AUDIOLINK: SoundCloud