STORMY WEATHER

Here in Texas, we often get our fiercest winter weather in mid-February. Some of you might remember hearing on the news in February, 2022, about our SnowMageddon, when we woke to a week of six degrees below zero temperatures and a failing power system. This year was mild compared to that, but in the past two weeks, every few days near-tornadic winds have roared into our Piney Woods damaging trees, homes and businesses. March has come in not just like a lion, but a really mad lion!

That assault of atmospheric anger has, of course, had a governmental parallel. Trump and Musk have taken the country by storm! Every day bring a new onslaught of Constitution-denying edicts—cruel insults, fictious accusations, ridiculous communiques, departmental take-overs, mass firings, and the insidious assault of the DOGE minions. And it’s not just in Washington; leaders in every country are facing our tempests. Just consider Trump’s ambush of President Zelenskyy last week and the chaos of on-again-off-again tariffs and the dismantling of USAID.

And what about here in the U.S.? Musk’s slashing of programs for nutrition and schools and non-profit groups and universities and healthcare projects and scientific research and media outlets and women and People of Color and those with gender difference and Sanctuary cities and those who speak truth to power (like me!). Who’s next? It is enough to make us want to hide in our storm cellars and tornado closets, until the storm passes.

But we cannot. We are needed.

I believe in us, in our bravery, in our voices, in our moral strength, in our devotion to democracy. Though the storm may rage, let us not simply complain or let rumors feed our fears. Let us rise to the occasion of this assault on our country. I’ll meet your there!

Here is the link to this week’s Poet with a Press Pass poem, “Relentless.”

Written by Anne McCrady. Published by InSpiritry. March, 2025.

annemccrady@inspiritry.com PoetwithaPressPass.com