Poem for Saturday and NOPE

Let Them Not Say
By Jane Hirshfield

Let them not say:   we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say:   we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say:   they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say:   it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say:   they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something:

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned

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"This poem was written well before today's Presidential Inauguration," Hirshfield told Poets.org for Poem-a-Day. "But it seems a day worth remembering the fate of our shared planet and all its beings, human and beyond."

No politics here because I didn't turn on the television, I didn't look at news except a collection of Michelle Obama doing awesome eyerolls, I didn't let myself think about what was going on downtown. I went to the library and to the food store with Paul and I donated money online to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

Okay, so I couldn't avoid the discovery that the new WhiteHouse.gov web site no longer has pages on civil rights, LGBT rights, Native American issues, health care, or links for people who speak Spanish or need accessibility, though it does now have links to QVC sales by the only immigrant who doesn't have to fear for her status.

I also had dinner with my parents and Maddy, who started online at the Berklee College of Music and has lots of homework. In the evening Cheryl and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl because it was all I could handle tonight, and these are the only sort of photos I can handle tonight: