Most of us will remember when Hurricane Harvey came through Huston Texas a couple of years ago, the city was flooded, homes were destroyed and people were stranded needing help. This year a different but similar storm hit Dallas Fort Worth with ice and snow, freezing pipes, crippling the electrical grid, and contaminating the water. In both cases people came to assist and offer help. This kind of coming together to help is what America is really all about. I wrote this poem after the hurricane, but it could just as well apply today.
“Forty Days and Forty Nights”
“The rains came down and
The floods came up”
Water deluge seemed endless
Twenty-trillion gallons of water fell
No Ark available for people or animals
Only Texans reaching out with mini arks
Carrying friends neighbors and strangers
To safety on dry land
No discrimination hate or bigotry here
Only concern to help one’s neighbor
Not Republican or Democrat
Politics is left for the judgmental talking heads
Not African-American or White or Latino
Just Americans helping Americans
Concern for one another’s safety
Supersedes all other strongly held labels
Except for a few smallminded newscasters
Who lost their sense of focus
Making light of the First-lady’s heels
Leaving with her husband to support the victims
The true Americans one and all
Manifested themselves in Harvey’s wake
Working tirelessly to help others in need
We must remember and learn from this
When the waters recede and dry land reappears
We are more than politics race or creed
With one heart one spirit and concern for each other
We are Americans one and all
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
