Ready for Change

tonight football at a friend's, the dark light of night staved off, that sundayitis made-to-hide-us, for a few hours at least. sandwiches with roasted peppers. pita and corn chips. a bowl of sauce. the alcohol running. the child comes in, watches mommy and daddy drink beer, shits her diaper, gets taken to the back room. the men on the screen advance forward and backward in the shivering cold. and on commercials, we switch over to the inaugural concert. everybody's playing with a smile in the frigid dc air for barack obama and dc does look its gorgeous self, all those stars and celebrities and the happy crowd, but mainly the monuments so grandiose and showing off and knowing it. what a city, my former city. and there's a little homesickness and there's some tears that want to well up for the momentousness of the occasion, that the bushes are leaving, finally they're leaving, and a new regime is coming in, one that holds promise to be inclusive. never seen so many so-called minority faces up and parading across the america's stage. it is so beautiful and so long in coming and i am, i am, i am ready for that change.