Sorry Day in Alice Springs

I miss most of the words
because I forget –
I wonder why? –
but the few I hear
make me cry at once

because they’re saying
the wrong that everyone sees
in the streets of our town
is the most important thing
for our country to deal with

because we’re faced daily
with the trouble and sickness
that’s come from that wrong
and most of us, including me
turn away from it
most of the time

because they’re saying
people will come together
and you almost never see
a white person
walking with a black person
in this town

because a real leader
got elected

because this wrong
affects everyone in our town –
practically if not emotionally –
and it feels like the rest of the country
has no idea

and we can’t talk to them about it
because they’ll never understand
from their all-white suburbs
or just get more racist

because it sounded like
he really meant it
and people believed him

because any reconciliation
might be possible now