by Lin Brummels
"Using your voice is a political choice."
Amanda Gorman, Ted Talk, 2022
A full flower moon beams
on me as I pace the worn
bedroom carpet, walking
off the day’s anxiety.
An angry person called
the counseling line to share
an opinion of my mental
health business, listed as one
that supports LGBTQ rights.
Making lunch and plans
to plant flowers, the phone
rang. I said hello, thinking
the caller was a potential
client and tried to learn
how I might help them.
The response came back
as accusations of our group’s
evil doing and threats
to smear us via public media.
The caller’s goal was to elicit
reaction not have conversation.
They were a robot on repeat,
hurling angry hateful words.
My deer-in-the-headlights
brain flipped back to my previous
supervisor chastising me
for something I didn’t do
or he thought I did wrong.
In truth, verbal confrontations
are not my strong suite,
stated, we support people.
Despite hecklers, we will persist,
help vulnerable individuals.
***
Lin Marshall Brummels earned a BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a MS from Syracuse University. She’s published poems in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her poetry chapbooks are “Cottonwood Strong” and “Hard Times,” a 2016 Nebraska Book Award winner. Her full-length collection, “A Quilted Landscape,” was published in 2021.
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