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 boat building 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 women
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 meek 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
eat in fine restaurants
and those who frame houses
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