Yes We Can

Yes we can

The politicians say
Yes we can
I don't know if that's as huge
as the other
Yes we cans I've heard in life

When they removed tumor after tumor
from your chemo-ridden blackish blue body mother,
And we were stunned with grief,
our voices buried beneath the rain of tears
like yellowed leaves huddled beneath soil,
we spoke then with our eyes :
"Yes we can"
"Yes you can"
You, from the ICU bed, from between the cobwebs of plastic tubes
Dad and I from the small round glass window
the only transparent thing when all else seemed opaque

And once when the earthquake struck
8.5 on the Richter scale...
At first the building swayed like a sari in the breeze
Then crumbled and fell like an axed tree
We lay buried in our own home
Huddled under debris and rubble
Our blind dog yelping pitifully
Asking for love
We each whispered to ourselves
Yes we can

Our nations can
Of course they can
So can they whose courage has wings

But those weary...whom time has tested like a
eutectic alloy
Whose breaths are wide and old
Whose tears glimmer like cataracts
in the eyes
Whose veins claim the knuckles like an uprooted tree
Whose hearts pump less than half the blood they should

When those silent, tired tongues say
Yes we can
Something trembles in the winds
A new leaf, a new moon, a new boundary
We need no banners
That proclaim Yes We Can
We need only its whispers
As old knees groan out of bed
And touch the horizons of a brand new day
and say
Yes we can
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