Yes, We Did!

Alex Shapiro, this morning on her blogsite, was very excited about Barack Obama being elected, and she wrote:

Yes, We Did!

Yes, we did.

After eight painful and shameful years
living in a nation held hostage
by greed and lies,
a lot of us experienced one gigantic,
collective exhale last night.
We watched as the U.S. pendulum
began a swing back toward sanity,
in an historic election
many of us had been afraid to believe
wouldn’t be stolen in its final hours.

I was in tears
at several moments during the evening.
First, when CNN declared
that Barack Obama was President Elect.
Capital letters emblazoned across the TV screen
were the indication to my psyche
that yes, this was real.
I wept.
And I wept again
when I saw the stunningly huge, entranced crowd
standing in Chicago,
as I listened intently
to this inspiring man’s moving speech.

Mr. Obama will probably
not be able to solve all the problems
this nation faces,
but I am extremely grateful
that he’s willing to sacrifice so much
to try.

I have no doubt that there will be
a significant improvement
not only in the direction of the U.S. government,
but in the morale of its citizens
who have been promised a President
who will actually listen to them.
And I can only guess
that we’ve suddenly gained
a few brownie points overseas,
as the world watches us attempt
to redeem ourselves.

As I type this at 3:30 Wednesday morning,
what began as the soothing sound
of moderate rain
has quickly ramped up
to quite a riot of sonic pounding
on my metal roof.

Curious, I opened the door
in my studio
and was astonished to witness
a remarkable hail storm
of ice pellets the size of canned peas.
Millions of them, pouring down,
bouncing, landing, joyously, insistently,
looking as though someone made
a middle of the night gravel delivery
atop the grass.

It’s not particularly cold;
just 42 degrees.
Barefoot,
I stepped outside
and delighted in standing there
with the hail pouring down on me.
Pummeling me, in fact.
A cheap thrill.
I even wondered if my car might get dented.
I cupped my hands
and collected these rounded icy gems,
rolling them over my fingers.
Wonderful.

Now back at my desk,
miniature snowballs slowly melt on my hair.
Even the atmosphere is celebrating
the outcome of the election.
Hail to the change in America!


Alex Shapiro November 5, 2008