I want to wake up

I want to wake up in a world

where nobody puts flags on their lawns

where breakfast is communal

where children play hopscotch in Congress

I want to wake up where the rich

are not afraid of the poor

and the poor are not ashamed

and everyone has dirt between their toes

I want to wake up where doctors

hold office hours on the street

where libraries fireproof their books

and mothers make the laws

I want to go to school

where weaving is on the curriculum

astronomy is taught by poets

and philosophy taught by day laborers

I want to wake up where

only comedians have straight faces

and the laughter of children

is our national anthem

I want to wake up in a world where

no one has wine until everyone has water

where mosquitos forget how to mate

and Haiti is again the Garden of Eden

I want to wake up where no

one crossing a river gets caught in barbed wire

cowers under drones or

suffocates under broken concrete

I want to wake up in a world

where bullets are composted

the disabled fly in first class

and there is always room at the inn

I want to wake up in a world where

mercy is more than a speech by Portia

where judges are quick to forgive

and lethal injections are obscene

I want to wake up where farm workers

can eat in fine restaurants

and those who frame houses

can live in them

I want to wake up where

three sisters dance in the garden

blue potatoes sleep in the soil

and tomatoes ripen before our eyes

I want to wake up in a world

where the young explore the universe

but come home after six days

to light the Sabbath candle

I want to wake up in a world

so distant from our own

so close to our own

Close your eyes

Open them

Step through

Art: El Sueño. lithograph

by Diego Rivera, 1932