Enter New Life

Tick tock, tick tock...
EXPLOSION!
(and that was the end of the story.)

It seems every newspaper speaks of sure doom-
If not recession depression, then flu.
What happened to happy news?
Baby pandas and flowers,
Spring, gardening, and food.

Instead, single people cannot find love.
Instead, young people cause harm.

Predators come in the depths of the night
to prey on your twelve year old child.

A man says the church should spread more news of hope.
That preachers have let masses down.

And all around me, doom, doom, doom!
(BOOM!)

The downward spiral ends in a twist.
The people return to the earth.

And I in my garden, dig up dark earth
and plant seeds I'll save on the morrow
Adding sky water, and adding sky light
to grow a life brand new.

--Marie Tai

This poem, for me, is about the tension that is building up everywhere around me. At some point, I think it will be too much. I know already, for a lot of people, the stress of everything going on is really too much to bear. So there is an explosion in this poem, a breaking point of sorts that releases the tension and repetition. And when that happens, everything becomes simpler. People return to their roots and find joy in things like playing in the dirt and growing things, and they forget how traumatized they once were.