Readers are Still Waiting
by Mary Langer Thompson
   After Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1919-2021

We wait for the multitudes on Mulberry Street
to be lifted up in all their diversity,
for The Borrowers to stop stealing and calling it borrowing,
and for one velveteen rabbit to get fluffed up again.

We wait for Nancy Drew to solve mysteries of life
and Meg and Charles to iron out those wrinkles in time,
for Archie to choose between Betty and Veronica,
and for the Hardy Boys to become hardier in a Brave New World.

We still hope for the killing of mockingbirds to stop,
for human comedy laughter,
and for Vonnegut's Dresden to push the bombs back into the sky
before they incinerate people. So it goes.

And I am still waiting for Maya to continue
to free those singing caged birds,
for Mango Street to be safe for Esperanza,
and, like Langston and Lawrence, for America to be America again.


 

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