We prepare a meal for hungry
guests, in gratitude for
the harvest received.
We offer bread and meat,
a splash of wine from grapes
picked by workers unafraid
of abduction by
masked agents.

We pursue happiness, sing
full throated, seize
opportunity, drive a car,
visit a national park,
hug a child, build
a life, find a state
of serenity.

We protect Due Process
cite The US Constitution,
peacefully bend the arc
of history toward justice,
note the arc is warped
from stress testing by
a new kind of king.

Debra Hall is a full time poet after retiring as a high school Spanish teacher in Racine, Wisconsin. She served as the 2020 Racine Poet Laureate and was featured in Brain Mills Press' online 2024 Poet Spotlight (April). Three of her poems were published in Local Gems Press' A Wreath of Golden Laurels (2022), a collection of poems by poet laureates across the United States. Her work has been published in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets' Calendar (2024, 2025, 2026) and in a future anthology of Root River Poets.