Yearn for the Best
yearn for the best
yearn for the best
by Douglas Hardman
Childhood dazeBaseball gamesSandy beach tripsMidnight neighborhood adventuresTrips that bore amusementAircraft carriersAnd ash falling from the airScreams silenced by fistsSisters’ lives threatenedMy mother brokenMy spirit beatenSunshine and laughterConcealed the dark cloudsBut transparency is keyYou cannot suppressWhat shaped youHistory is sugarcoatedMinus the Great Depression(that one they got right)Genocide masked with promiseColonization rewarded with statuesShackles transformed to cuffs“Make peace, not war”Against the backdrop of actual warShield their eyesMake it easy to swallowSince their jaw was broken by the fists of men incapable of empathyVicious cycles bore repeatingWhile we continue to glorify the glory days
Pessimism is a diseaseIt’s just hard to hard to see the upsideWhen my rose-colored glasses are bloodstainedBut I lied beforePerspective is keyThe past may haunt youKnuckled down and afraidI found it hard to yearn for the bestWhen I never knew what could beOnly what wasNow I knowI can yearn for the bestThat has yet to beBecause nothing could be as badAs what the past once did to me
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Featured in our September 2021 issue, "Nostalgia"