was it women and earth

conspiring with hope

 

Isaac laughed into town

at those blaming the gays

            for natural calamities

 

while the wiser of you

just looked away

 

Sandy on deck

took the baton

before the election

giving Obama a boost

 

we had driven through Utah

posters of Orrin Hatch said

It’s time for Utah to lead.

 

we had left Escalante

friends told us about

bleeding the beast

 

which means it’s OK,

to take from the feds

an immoral institution

take but don’t give

 

and about the Jew boys

as everyone called them

who used to live in their house

 

we left the state slowly

on tiny back roads

made a wrong turn

to a much bigger one

 

I stepped on the petal

and never looked back

 

Utah is

a beautiful state

but I’m not sure Orrin got it

and might consider

not looking away

when a hurricane blows your way

 

and not a single mom

who’s down on her luck

 

or a veteran so messed up

he’s resorted to drugs

 

not part of a church

but still he needs help

 

and lucky for us

Obama knows what it’s like

to be thought of as less

than what you can be

 

and that we can dream

past their caricatures

 

be rainbows of hope for

the downtrodden and low

 

while your concepts of us

is angry and mean

unless we’re part of your game

 

so thanks to the storms

of nature and hope

that blew through your money

and ideological dope

 

and here’s wishes of more

than you don’t want us to be

and hope for a future that

includes the word free