I try to teach my kids civility I aim to instill respect As you stand upon your soapbox Doing the very things I ask them to reject The name calling, the mockery the disregard for people’s lots The lack of compassion and empathy for the things most people fight for- that you bought The lies, misleadings, and backtracks the disproven “no I didn’ts” A child in a chair and not a thrown Immune to things like evidence Whims for approval turned promises Drawing lines within the sand It seems it’s more about winning Than for that for which you stand Both sides telling stories Versions of truth their only bond But we’ve grown tired of being treated as lemmings, sheep, or pawns You push, you prod, you bully but to ‘serves’ not in your nature It’s not politicing but your very actions That go against the presidential nomenclature “How much blood” is how you sell your people on a wall to protect the border While daily mass shootings by citizens don’t sway you on gun control reform from your NRA donor’s orders Praying on fear and on weakness Xenophobia’s your zen Our nation of immigrants now vilifying asylum seekers and aliens Taking his ball when he can’t have his wall Leaving no room to negotiate How can we expect progress With the elected refusing to participate Your way or the highway disagreement means dissension And all the while teaching to attack with cruel intension Our reality turned reality show Campaigned threats seeming scripted or phantom But the series plays out before us with every tweet and every tantrum Is confusion what you seek Or is this show purely propaganda Each decision that you forge For you own personal bonanza (But you lack the historical knowledge…and charisma of Lin Manuel Miranda) Half way through or perhaps a quarter May your legacy be not pure stain Be it through frustration or distrust The distain has caused a change A palpable shift of those typically silent a democratic squall Some running to steal the dusty seats While throngs now protest standing tall Innocence lost – what have we done? Our children’s first act to revile Like the epiphanies of Scrooge or the Grinch There’s still time to right the ship and reach across the aisle Not party first, but future first we can once again be great But to find that hidden path once more Starts with putting aside the hate. So I will teach my children Hate is ignorant, love’s a mission Standing up for your beliefs Should never mean not listening