Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, my April Poem A Day hangout, wanted poems about “melting,” but with an interesting twist: NO use of words like hot, cold, fire, or ice! So my original thought, “What a world! What a world…” a la the Wicked Witch was out the door. Ditto romantic heat. So I turned to… the news. Also at my hearth and home, Poets United.
Boston Meltdown
“We’re stuck in our house,
Diane,” she tells ABC News.
“Trying to figure out what’s
for dinner. My husband’s
defying the cops, going over
to the butcher shop… that guy’s
gonna make a mint, Mike’s
buying filet mignon.”
“And how do you feel
about this ordeal?” intones
Sawyer, safe in the studio.
“What ordeal? This is America,
and yeah, now we’re on lockdown.
My confidence in personal freedom
may be melting around the edges,
but now I kind of understand what
Afghanis go through every day.”
© 2013 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Based on an ABC News interview of a Cambridge, MA resident. I am glad they caught the second suspected bomber alive, and I hope he makes it to trial. Peace, and prayers to all in Boston and West Texas, Amy
Sharp Little Pencil 
Susie Clevenger (@wingsobutterfly)
What horrible things we humans do to one another that terror and war become a way of life. We send weapons and warriors to other countries and when it comes home we realize for some horrible moments we are living what others in places like Afghanistan must live through every day.
Loredana Donovan
Your last line was poignant. Well written.
K.M. OSullivan
You made the point I’ve been making to my kids all week. Yes, this is horrible. Yes, this is inconvenient. Yes, this is a normal for many people around the world. I wrote something about this: http://kmosullivan.com/2013/04/18/picture-this-the-cement-slide/.
Helen
I’ve had uneasy feelings this week … so passionate about our country, keeping it safe .. knowing full well this is ‘business as usual’ for so many around the world. Thank you for writing this, Amy.
Susan
The massacre/maiming of marathon runners horrified me beyond “now we knows,” and yet I love your poem. It is the meat shop that does it for me, a real life butcher symbolizing what gets served up and who makes the fortune. Wow.
Kay, Alberta, Canada
It is, indeed, what so many people go through every day. People like thee and me, who happen to be living in Israel, praying every night that a bomb won’t fall on them while they sleep. Palestinians praying for the same thing. African people praying that their sons won’t be stolen from them in the night, taken away to become boy-soldiers, and that their daughters won’t be raped and killed in their own beds.
In North America we are horrified at the thought of bombs in Boston. In many countries, bombs hit next door, across the street, and then, for the unlucky innocents, on the roof.
I’m glad the perpetrators of this senseless violence have been caught, not so much because one is dead and one will be punished, but because a tentative tranquility might be possible for the puzzled public.
K
vivinfrance
Oh how I loathe those inane vox pop interviews. Of course we’re worried/frightened/mad as fire. You’ve caught it brilliantly.
Kerry O'Connor
And so violence continues to circle the planet.. round and round and down the drain.
Roger Green
y’know, it’s the fact that ABC News DOES focus on people telling Diane that they’re stuck in their houses which made me finally give up on it altogether.
coalblack
I love this lady’s sense of perspective. Sometimes, when I have had a bad day at work, on the way home I will remind myself that no one is shooting at me, no Taliban is making me cover up and taking away my books, and I have water and electric and a place to lay my head where there are not 15 other people in the room. It’s no joke.
What may be the most horrifying to me about the whole Boston mess, is that these young men walked among their victims, knowing what they were setting in motion. Someone reported that one of them set a bomb down at the feet of the family with the 8 year old boy who died. How can a human being do that to someone else? How can they feel nothing? I believe that they will have to answer for what they’ve done, and that one of them already is.
Mary
I was glued to the television as much as possible, just hoping they would get the bomber. I think we are all sharing a collective sign of relief. I do hope the suspect makes it to trial as well.
julespaige
This is so much more than just a verse. Jam packed with more facts than a news blurb or the continuation of verbal banter that attempts to pass for reporting.
I also drew from the news for the Prompt over at Miz Q’s for this morning:
(actually my daily also, but this is to the prose piece):
http://juleslongerstrandsofgems.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/suppose-prose/
Thanks for your support and understanding.
Everyday is a different trial. There has got to be a better way…
Peace, Jules.
Stormcat
Eroding personal freedoms. Life Liberty and Property? I’m baffled!
The annual property taxes on my little piece of swampland is more that the rent on a house in town!
Marian
yeah. gosh, i can’t even say anything else, i’m spent. just letting you know i’m here and reading. 🙂
isadoragruye
Hola Amy: I find this strikes a tone and resonates with me. If you have read my work, you know I stray away from topical poems (I often find them to be drenched in sensationalism and that they tend to rely of knowledge of a temporary world), however, I do find this piece well written and I very much appreciate the message embedded here. The melting away of freedoms seems to happen layer by layer so that we hardly take notice, no? Thanks again and viva la
brenda w
Thank you, Amy.
I HAVE A VOICE
Extremely wonderful ! girl, you are very talented!
lmkazmierczak
With the moments still fresh in our memories, it is these slices of life that will transcend the tragedy, and keep us remembering the fragility of freedom and life. Nicely done.