Inauguration Day 2009

Inauguration Day 2009

And now we must stop making excuses.
Beyond that, I have no words.
No words that seem adequate;
None that seem eloquent enough,
Deserving enough to be shared.

Some two million strong
Along the Washington mall
Wave flags and hats and hands
And wishes and hopes and dreams.
We are all strengthened by their pride.

Wrapped in the icy embrace of
A winter both literal and symbolic,
Their breath plumes white
But their hearts beat warm
And the future smells of sweetest spring.

From ball to ball, tonight
America dances toward the future.
The waltz beat strains of Hope and Change
And all the best the World can offer:
This is what's to come.

So no more excuses. No blame deflected.
Responsibility is ours once more.
Gather up the tools of growth,
And fertilize with faith and hope;
America, your future has already begun.

--Chris Kmotorka, January 20, 2009

Election Day, November 4, 2008

Election Day, November 4, 2008

I want to feel hope.
I want to feel the blissful
Sense of renewal and
The Dawn of a New Age.
I want to know the firm embrace
Of collective accomplishment,
The comfort of a united nation.

I see the loosening of chains:
Real, imagined, metaphorical.
Centuries of oppression
Lifted like a veil by a simple count.
Like a magic trick: 1, 2, 3...you're free.
At least for the moment.
At least for the foreseeable future.

Tonight we shed our tears.
Tonight we feel the weight lifted.
We try to hide our schadenfreude:
Our victory is over more than
The small minded, the short sighted,
The angry few grinding down our foundation
To a rubble of division.

Our victory is over limits,
The barriers that held us back;
Barriers of fear and suppression.
Barriers we helped erect
In a moment of weakness and sorrow.
Tonight we have come together
To reclaim a vision and to swing a hammer.

So tonight, amidst the rubble,
I feel the hope and I see the renewal.
Half sheltered behind these broken walls
Of a decade of ruin, I feel it.
But it is cautious. It is guarded.
For it is newborn and vulnerable.
We must be vigilant for its survival.

-Chris Kmotorka