Detaching From Politics
I am detaching myself
From the pain of politics,
My emotions can no longer survive
The battering
Of bullets killing children,
The enslavement of women's bodies
In certain states,
The thwarting of solutions to our real problems
By too many politicians in pursuit
Of petty power,
Of a Russia whose inherited Mongol policy
Of fighting wars by destroying cities and civilizations
Is in full force,
And all the other insanities,
Both local and international,
That our personal stupidities enact.
Oh, I will continue to do my due diligence as a citizen
Dispassionately,
But no longer will I invest my emotions
In the outcome
Of my votes, petitions, donations,
And policy advice through poetry, protests
And otherwise.
Good deeds will be done as occasion and ability allow,
But I am reserving my emotional experiences
To the enjoyment of the day
And to loving myself, my animals, friends and family,
People – in general, and life everywhere.
Carl Scott Harker ©2023
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My latest book of poetry is now available on Amazon, you can find more great poems in here: An Engineer of Words.
As suggested by a comment, I want to reassure readers that…
I am not going anywhere nor cancelling my monthly donation.
I just realized today, I could no longer afford to make emotional payments for OUTCOMES! I will do the work, but am giving up on my expectations of the results – because clearly too many of them are beyond my control (and are in the hands of of whom I deem to have broken minds and hearts). I guess I just need to make a decorative statement that I hoped others would find useful.