This is a dark time for many Americans
among the more somber of my life
hopefulness has trouble finding any 
sort of foothold, sense of balance

Months away from retirement I 
already see the tarnish descending 
on my planned golden years
sitting in a recliner with my feet up 
letting others take up the resistance 
just doesn’t sit well at deepest levels

So I lean on my past – known, unknown
my father’s Jewish forebearers who
endured pogroms, czars, shtetl poverty 
to come here, start over, build lives in
a country not always hospitable 
or my mother’s Norwegian relatives
country and homes occupied by 
invading Nazis in league with traitors
twenty-four years later we visited
stayed with my aunt, her home reclaimed 
upon liberation, physically unscathed

Legacy, psyche, honor pushes me on as
I wonder what I will be called upon to do -
ala knock rampaging Cossacks from horses
join an underground in acts of sabotage
taking my cues from those who begat me
in defense of my children, grandchildren
all who will come, those who came before
I see all of this clearly, know my duty 

I have slept in beds where Nazis slept.
I cannot afford to go to sleep now.


– Mark L. Lucker
© 2024
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B017LALIES