Got-tah!

This morning I was watching on Good Morning America a brave civilian woman come to the aid of a police officer being overwhelmed by someone in what was suppose to be a routine traffic stop; a second woman who bravely came back after fleeing from a gunman who was attempting to do harm to a school board in Florida & I realized I had started to cry.


First I was very proud of these women who showed bravery when they could have simply ran & took care of themselves in the midst of danger...


Then the beginning of this poem popped in my head.  I know when a poem is coming and scattered looking for paper & pen to write it down.  What happened next was what you see below.  This is a rough draft, I may tweak, then again I may just leave it in its purest,rawest form...

Gotta
By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney©10





Gotta know there is still goodness in the world.
Gotta know not for show
That integrity stands strong
And compassion reigns supreme
That love is divine.

I gotta know that people’s hearts are not far gone
And as monumental & as Sweet
As daring as the comet streaking across the night’s vastness being as splendid as it wants to be.
Being bold, ferocious with as much nerve it can hand out the sunshine of the Way.

I gotta know that a child’s tears
Is not from distress …
But from discovering his mommy’s eyes for the first time.
Or forced to be older then their years in fear for a world that gives no warranty in youthful joyfulness…

I gotta know that my elders are warmed from love of family
And not frozen in apprehension as in “How am I going to do it”?
And not dismissed as inconsequential or irrelevant
Or even worse treated as if they are not neither here or there
Or beside the point
By ones whose condescending eyes who wasn’t even around to envision the 7^th wonders of the world.

I gotta know a phone call brings laughter, cheer and goodwill…
Not from fear & dismay.
I gotta know somewhere in the world that some will trust as they sleep
That they will not waken to “Oh God what am I going to do”…

I gotta know when on say
“Let’s do lunch”, they mean it…
O that expressed “concern” is not thinly shrouded judgment...
That one will be connected & shown in deed, in action.
That it is in real time, not hypothetical,
Unethical...
Not ever practical.
Action that consent to one’s dignity being left intact...
Be honored; flown high…


I gotta know that hope prevails
That despair is to no avail
I gotta know a world flowing over with mercy in actions both significantly and substantially
That civility is the norm not the exception.
That dreams are meant to be dreamt, not abandoned.
Or trampled on by modern day Philistines bent on harming as they’ve been impaired
That a “Good Morning” & a “G’day” is simply that…
Good.
Not only for a privileged few.
Who greedily hold to those privileges as if there isn’t enough to go around?
Gladly trample on the vulnerable anew.

Where is that world?
In my view?
It may, you say
You, it’s all around you.
While that may be true, then it needs a mo betta P.R firm…


I just gotta know that there is still a world
There is the multitude
Not a few
Who gotta have a world?
That is just, right & true.
All rights reservedJHM12-15-10©