I Dreamed About You Last Night, America

I saw you down on one knee, a cloud of dust swirling around you.

The great white boot of a tremendous monster stomped repeatedly on all you held dear, shattering it again and again.

Tears stained your cheeks, all at once pink and brown, red and yellow, purple and black.

You scrambled and searched through the accumulating particles, eager to hold onto all you could find, grasping desperately to maintain despite the onslaught.

Fear and pain overcame you, twisting your mouth and sending more tears spilling downward.

Finding nothing left of yours to destroy, the boot instead came for you.

Its impact sent echoes reverberating across the now barren landscape.

In your eyes came a new look, a sense of resolve and reserves of strengths you’d forgotten—a sense of oneness and power.

The look of hope when faced with hopelessness.

Steeling yourself, you thrust your hands forward, catching the boot on its downward trajectory.

The boot continued, knowing only one thing: destruction and cruelty. It struck at you, connecting across your forehead, stomping, crushing, wanting to obliterate.

You reached again, grabbing for a moment until the boot found you again. It drew blood.

Crimson streaks mixed with the salty teardrops cascading from your eyes. The pain that crossed behind them shook you at first, but then you focused.

The next time the boot tried to strike, you were faster and mightier.

You caught it around the ankle and you squeezed.

The monster roared above you, reminding you that it did not acknowledge your existence, it did not give credence to your pain, it did give deference to your needs.

You squeezed harder.

For the first time, you looked up, meeting its gaze. Its look was dismissive and haughty. Yours was resolute and hopeful.

In the moment it saw in you what it could never be: a community of equals united in purpose to lift up each other.

The monster only knows how to drag down, how to pull apart, how to crush.

You squeezed harder and pushed.

The monster screamed again, tearing at you with its claws. If it could not destroy what you have and force you to submit to the consequences then it would seek instead to rip you to shreds.

New streaks of red flowed from the slices and cuts, but you had found your footing. New hands joined yours, amplifying your strength.

Together, you squeezed harder.

Pushing, shoving forward, into and past an attack that had at first seemed insurmountable, you found a way through.

The monster toppled over, buried in the pile of dust it had helped create.

I saw your face, bruised and bloodied, lit by a morning sun.

Hope, community, and perseverance had saved you.