Poetry

David Geitgey Sierralupe photo

By

Penn Kemp

Process Due

My only antidote to all the lies, half-truths

and leaps to judgment is radical honesty to

myself and you. Which keeps me somewhat

silent while social media raves and rages on.

The times are beyond phase. No phrase can

explicate, elucidate, explain or extricate us

from this mess of potage, this “shit-hole”

which imPotus so ineloquently describes.

O imPudent impOssible impRobable Imp-

Ulsive imPoster imPotus! Poseur: Will you

accept this thorn? The rose has departed.

Who can say what we deserve or why.

May courage, constancy, compassion and

clarity now see us through to the other side

of this impossible divide in ever widening

schism, polarized ruptures, rifts and splits.

How can we ever again be large enough to

encompass the whole? By choice of heart

and change of mindset, we might embrace

or at least endure, at most celebrate, all that

is thrown our way by chance or consequence.

The time has come. It is not just possible.

Despite invasive Trumpocracy, it is necessary.

Penn Kemp

Penn Kemp is an activist Canadian poet, playwright and editor.  Her latest works are two plays celebrating local hero and explorer, Teresa Harris, produced in 2017 and published by Playwrights Guild of Canada. Recent books include Barbaric Cultural Practice (quattrobooks.ca/books/barbaric-cultural-practice/) and two anthologies edited, Women and Multimedia and Performing Women (http://poets.ca/feministcaucus/livingarchives/). See www.pennkemp.weebly.com.