7

Truly, there are two worlds. We are not giving up hope, but surrendering to it. We set hope in the future tense, like a vase in a museum. The problem is the glass between us. What we see we cannot touch. At the mall, a boy paints his pottery; next door, puppies chew their blankets. We are wrapped in our attention, shivering. Another shooting. Surveillance video proves the officer did not want to kill the boy. Not everyone dies the same, the mayor says, and we believe him, because he's black. All mothers grieve the same, and we believe them because they're all on film. Next up in my video queue: “Lemurs eat holiday treats at Brookfield Zoo.” How then can we contemn the world, which we are born to enjoy?

--24 December 2014