My Nation Has Spoken

Betsy Joseph

November 17, 2024

Just as lichen strangles

the character of tree bark

because its will to overcome

drives its need, sickens the tree

with its appetite to spread its frenzy

from the bottom to the top,

I now watch a different frenzy build

within the nature of humankind,

distilling a long-ago pride

that becomes more tattered with time

as anger builds and breeds contempt,

threatening to suffocate the voices of hope

still clinging to, still singing of 

democracy and its preservation—

only possible if we stand close and strong

in the forest of our land,

our skin, bark-tough and free

from the blight of lies,

from the threat of tyranny.

I live to breathe calm again.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems which have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.