…’To You’

” First they came for the Socialists … I did not speak out …

   and there was no one left to speak for me.”  —  Martin Niemoller

It always closes in on you the same way.

When it was about being

kidnapped (back) into slavery.

Or when peoples have been, are

plagued by epidemic genocides;

color-coded, race-and-gender or

faith-based oppressions such as

still raging pandemic patriarchies;

and when falsely accused, unjustly 

arrested, convicted, wrongfully 

sentenced just for being “other than”, 

having already been imprisoned 

in poverty, or for slipping, falling 

into the hole of addiction, homelessness;

or otherwise scourged 

as we all are presently by this 

fast-spreading genderless, raceless, 

classless, religionless, seemingly  

apocalyptic COVID-19 pathogen’s 

impendiing indiscriminate world-wide 

wipe out of so many:

… Many Thousands Gone … 

First it happens to a friend’s friends’ friends.

Then it’s a few of your friend’s friends.

After that it’s an acquaintance.

Then a friend. Eventually, friends, 

a family member or two.

Finally, in mind during daytime, in nightmare

during bits of fitful sleep you wonder if what has happened and is happening  

will happen …

Everett Hoagland was the first Poet Laureate of New Bedford. He is a recent recipient of the annual, national Langston Hughes Society Award. His poetry has been regularly published in periodicals and anthologies for over half a century. One of his recent books is Ocean Voices, published by Spinner Publications.