Inauguration

As festivities near conclusion,
A people’s work underway.
As balls and hoopla muted:
A seriousness of the day.
Necessity too, they must abide,
Undo, now…
Thwarting a burgeoning,
Poisonous tide.

The skies clear for a sunspotlight
The spare crowd illuminated thus seems right
A lifting of a veil dragged south
Unnamed, now…
A costume in grim, gauzy cloak-work
Ticked through with fear upon fear,
Woven and weaponized;
Churlish carnage near.

Compare against this odd coupling
‘Cross a continent, a generation —
And that anchor distance, too, seems right
To draw us together, chains gliding
Unhindered, now…
As through fairleads greased
With a kind of kindness;
A new captain thusly fated speaks.

A hard voice that softens speaking, catching as it always has
Excitement exacerbates it; a worthy moment come to pass.