Celebration (a draft)

What is there for us to celebrate today?
Here some fresh blue is showing in the western sky
but Gaza still wears a face of misery
and cars keep blowing up people in Baghdad.

Last week a man killed all his children
before he shot himself in his parked car
and another took his gun to the immigration centre
because of a difficulty with the language.

We see these stories and the bodies are counted,
the armed and angry men are named and then forgotten
as society's fabric unravels around them
and we wonder who next where next.

Last summer we touched down briefly in America
pausing between Istanbul and Toronto
long enough to change airlines, long enough
to witness the strictures of Homeland Security

and the chaos the madness the fear of a system
breaking down around us. Poor Fortress America,
I thought, so lost in today’s world,
and we got out as soon as we were allowed.

The next morning on a leafy street
we listened to Garcia singing
I’m goin back to New York City
I do believe I’ve had enough

and I was thinking I have too
but I ain’t goin back to that place,
not if I can help it, I’ll stay right here
and I'll find something else to celebrate,

I’ll wonder at the brave health of my able son
at the generous intelligence of his dear beloved
and at the shining presence that summer day
of a three week being sleeping peacefully

in a small wooden cradle next to a window
and I will celebrate that any day
and hope and wish the same for anyone
anywhere and anytime.