choked compassion

i am wrung to sadness after

watching a rally reading

of The Snake poem by someone

who twists compassion

into suspicion and distrust

that chokes our seeking for solution

putting on airs

air galivants, twisting, spiraling

flipping directions in all curved corners

of a sphere we cannot see

except as it pushes playfully

or with malice against limbs

furling, flaming, flaunting flags

causing whispered murmurings in pines

whipping dust up into devils

dropping in gray-purple funnels

as tornados or gleefully lifting birds

on unseen highway thermals

air is an active creature we humans

pretend is still until it blows us over