My eyes dance upon

Photos of fire

My eyes dance upon politicians

Lips curled, faces contorted

Bold lies in headlines

Words bent in angry angles

My eyes dance upon floods and derechos

High winds that snap trees

My eyes dance upon unemployment figures

Charts and graphs

Pointing uneven, jagged lines

Black, white, and red

A recession, a depression

My eyes dance upon the pandemic

Death numbers, percentages,

The plus sign, the minus sign

It’s all an equation—relative,

Things we have no power over.

No control over.

So why worry?

 

My home’s a fragile fortress

I have to protect my family 

By knowing what’s going on in the world

But doomscrolling’s destroying 

The fortress within.

 

At first, I do not look up

At first, I do not see her

My child says, Mom, stop, 

My child says, Mom, look at me.

My child says, Mom, please play with me.

 

She takes my phone, hands me a duct tape sword

We do battle in the yard on the green grass

And for a moment, we slay dragons

For a moment, 

We slay them all.