California 40 million strong
A concrete bubble
Cocooned by TV, Twitter, technology
In Laguna Beach/
Carefree neighborhoods
packed garages, full driveways, storage units
lights, stoves, phones
Green lawns, clean cars, Fiji, Evian/
Pacific’s edge
Sail boats, jet skis, paddle boards
Parks, benches, art
Life guards, street sweepers, dog catchers/
Puppies and kittens for company
Salad, muffin, cleanse
Yoga, Pilates, spin
The gurgling sound of a hunger pang, alien/
Faulting traffic, weather, air
Choosing toothpaste, toilet paper, deodorant
Voting, speaking, protesting
Against skateboarders, day laborers, homeless/
Virtual unreality
On couches sipping cola,
Hypnotic giant screens
Showing least aggravating, most entertaining/
Laughing with Simpsons and Jon Stuart,
We agree politics and policies are absurd,
Party leaders are buffoons
Greed is bad, charity good/
Sarajevans, Syrians, Sudanese far from our psyche
60 million weak
Walking across continents, washing ashore the Mediterranean
EU fretting, regretting/
Their ordeal, trauma, civil war
Disease, misfortune, poverty
Lack of opportunity
– least of our worries
Herded in tents, in stadiums, in deserts
Where heat and cold merciless
Limited sinks, showers, toilets
Kicking soccer balls, rolling tires in the dust/
Unencumbered by their misery
Uncertain escape, terrible fate, hard to take
Too far to reach
Off to see Martians, Peanuts and basketball games/
2016 arriving…
UNICEF, Red Cross, Refugee Fund…
waiting, anticipating
nickels, dimes and dollars/
$6000 for a dingy crammed with Kurds,
Capsizing
Aylan, 3, red shirt, blue shorts, lost his grip,
muzzled in wet sand,, toy-less, lifeless, senseless/
We disapproved
“the scarcity of humanity,
Such a shame, it had to be…
He looked a lot like me.”/
Einstein, I.M. Pei, Madeline Albright,
Joseph Pulitzer, John Muir, Joni Mitchell,
Bob Hope, Irving Berlin, Liz Claiborne
Our immigrants/
Oh but tiny ones crossing the Rio Grande
Without parents
Hungry, thirsty, afraid to be mules,
Flooding in, causing panic, a crisis/
150,000 little illegals on a journey, a saga actually
Looking for asylum, finding detention and deportation
Jeb shouting “Send in National Guard!”
This American amnesia will save us all./
Anita Razin is a published food columnist and short story writer. She lives in Laguna Beach with her husband and two daughters.