This poem, like our status quo, is a work in progress. I’m certain this draft will change as time and space and wisdom allow. As for the bigger picture, it’s only been 100 days, and there is still work to do. We will always be asking What’s Next!?, and will continue do the necessary work , until we get it right. Thank you for joining us for these past 100 days. Stay tuned for more poetry.

What’s Next!?

“America is on the move again.
Turning peril into possibility.
Crises into opportunity.
Setback into strength.” -- Joe Biden

And this, then, is the ever-repeating goal
broken record-like to the ear
but a mantra to the soul.
When it’s asked

What’s Next!?

we must always be on the move.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be another Vegas
and another Pulse;
another Sandy Hook & King Soopers.
There will be more Atlantas
and Indianapolises.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be more Floyds and Taylors,
Wrights and Toledos.

What’s Next!?

We must seek
dignity over dereliction of duty
justice over knee-jerk incompetence.
We must turn the peril
of traffic stops & grocery shops
into the possibility
of going on green
and making it home
to cook a new recipe.

What’s Next!?

We must
feed brainstorms over superstorms
and contain our rising coastal tides.
We must flood our borders with compassion
and climb out of the climate crisis--
invent and innovate the opportunities
to meet tomorrow 
and the next
and the next tomorrow
and the next.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
there will be more Sandys & Katrinas & Harveys
more fire warnings & wildfires
more tornado breakouts & droughts & t-storm washouts.

What’s Next!?

Algebra and calculus. 
We must flip the fractions
that have long divided us.
Now is the time for the new maths
of people over profits
and workers over CEOs
healthcare over wealthcare.
Let us place the 99
over the 1
the greatest good for the greatest number
above the greediest plunder.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
we must undo the brainwashing
and whitewashing.
Decriminalize homelessness
and stigmatize heartlessness.
We must take wrenches to the systems
that set us back
as if clocks or calendars
to the 1950s
or the 1850s
or the 1750s.

We must disassemble the machinations,
bring down the termite-ridden timbers
of bygone eras;
strip the shackles and salve the wounds.
Until we get it right.

Until we get it right
we must 
burn it all down
tear it all apart
blow it all up
raze the rotted corrupted hole
and build the stronger better whole
until we get it right.

What’s Next!?
We must keep reinventing language
and learning new pronouns and names for 
peoples, places, and things.
We must keep rewriting language
until truths are out and the full
unabridged
(our)story is told,
even, but especially,
the bleakest and darkest chapters.
Until we get it right.

What’s Next!?
We must keep reinventing ourselves
until we get it right
until we mean united and not contiguous.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !