Born with the Sound of Thunder

First of the New Year 2017

Dear Cassi,

Two thousand seventeen was born with the sound of thunder that shook the windows and set off car alarms. I was on duty when it happened and the roar of human jubilations was lost on me as I sat in silence for nearly twenty minutes letting the blasting play itself out.

The air is still burnt nearly twenty four hours later and smoke from the fire that scorched the night still lingers as a ghost. Every now and then the pop of a firework serves as the moan of this spirit of jubilation. As for me I don’t understand.

The world has moved on from the hard parts of life and the homeless still clog the streets in tent settlements like clumps of leaves in the rain gutters. The world still burns under the human touch and we have come no closer to changing things.  Still we fill the night with jubilation as if the world’s problems have been made nothing.

Perhaps I am a pessimist and all this should be stricken from my mind, but to me the future looks dark and that orange thing who will soon lead the world is making me feel sick and worried.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I do know that I will meet it as best I can. My life has been a fight and it looks like a fight one can never win, but so long as there is life there is that fight to keep me.

                

Stay safe, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal