By: Catherine Daleo
Reading time: 3 minutes

Lately I’ve been preoccupied. 

Distracted, anxious, and mortified. 

Every day this pandemic is intensified,

As Covid-19 spreads worldwide.

“There’s nothing to fear”, they testified.

Yet we find they knew different, and they LIED. 

They sold their stocks while people died,

And did nothing while a crisis was amplified. 

Too late we responded, instead we denied.

And with a lack of concern, the virus multiplied. 

Soon experts’ fears were verified, 

The threat of the contagion had been grossly oversimplified.

Our knowledge of past outbreaks was misapplied. 

And now we cannot go outside. 

We fear the stores not being resupplied, 

Everything around us shutting down for a time not specified. 

These uncertain times have people terrified, 

And it doesn’t help that our leaders are unqualified. 

In this crisis, the will of the people is denied, 

Instead our own government wants the constitution and our rights nullified.

This calls for action nationwide, 

As each of us should be horrified. 

For their contempt of us has been magnified, 

And their disdain for our lives more than implied. 

They’d rather we die for the economy for their investors to be satisfied, 

Worthless, disposable, and replaceable – we’ve been classified. 

Without a fight, they expect us to just abide, 

But they’ll soon learn their systems are unfortified. 

With the world in chaos our perspectives have been modified, 

The people are no longer willing to be objectified. 

With the need for progressive policy reclassified, 

Now the uncertainty of certain ideas are clear – they’ve been demystified.

With our anger and disgust completely justified, 

We are ready for our government to be detoxified. 

Too long they’ve ignored the issues that we’ve decried. 

Instead of action, real solutions went untried. 

To our need, we could only hope our government complied, 

Too long the people have been petrified. 

But now the answers to our problems have become clarified. 

And as a people we’re done being left behind and dissatisfied. 

We are the ones that provide. 

We are the ones on which the balance is relied. 

It’s time for what it means to be an American to be personified

No longer will we take their mistreatment in stride. 

We will no longer be defied. 

Instead our desires and intentions will be loudly identified. 

We will not rest until we are gratified, 

For the greed of the rich will no longer be glorified. 

The American people refuse to continue to be stupefied,

And they see it’s time for the concept of the American Dream to be modified. 

But first we need our differences to be cast aside,

And treat one another in a manner that is dignified. 

For it’s only next to our neighbors that we stand beside, 

That for a better future, needed change will coincide.

In righteous pain and anger, we are together allied,

It will be their downfall if any longer our patience is tried. 

For the gap between us and them is wide,

And the people are sick of being belied. 

We see the potential for a future that is beautified, 

One of which where love and neighborliness is applied. 

Where compassion and empathy is our guide,

And kindness is the defining trait of our society that which is vied.

Only then can a state of peace and balance be occupied,

And then maybe our democratic-republican can be retried. 

So together we must fight alongside,

Against a power that has too long been uncertified. 

Only through taking back our power will our freedom be signified,

For American is our country, where we all should be proud to reside. 

Yet with those at the helm, things have fallen by the wayside, 

And for the American people they’ve done nothing but misguide. 

So fight we must, if we are to be rectified,

But we can only succeed if we are unified.