Vox Populi
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Christine Rhein: People used to ask
my father for advice — how to fix
a chimney crack,
a sagging porch, how to realign
a patio — bricks upheaved
by thick tree roots, by years
of frost-thaw-frost.
And even now — at ninety —
neighbors call him over —
Could you come take a look,
tell me what you think?
Folks asked, too, about his accent,
his childhood in Germany,
about how Hitler was allowed
to take control, as though
my father could explain the rallies,
the lies, the worship
of anger, the fear of showing
oneself disloyal, weak.
But those questions stopped
long ago, he sighs —
the answers nightly, on the news.
Copyright 2022 Christine Rhein
Vox Populi 
“…the worship of anger” – well put!
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