You can get so concerned that your mind starts to race
As you doomscroll your feed at a break-necking pace
And grind on for hours with your phone in your face
Headed, I fear, toward a most useless place:
The Waiting Place.
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for the plague to go
Or the curve to bend, or the deaths to grow
Or the votes to count, or the rain to flow
Or a town to burn, if the bad winds blow
Or some other new, dreadful tale of woe
A twist in the hellish status quo
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the next shoe to drop
The next shock or riot or racist cop
Or for the pandemic’s march to stop
Or waiting for the next surge to bite
Or for a vaccine to cure our plight
Or waiting around for election night
And voting, perhaps, for Uncle Joe
But waiting for Trump’s next tweeted blow
Or the next court victory for freedom’s foe,
Tossing votes aside, ruling counts must slow
(cuz we’re a republic, now, don’t ya know)
Waiting for the next grand mistake
Or the nightmare to end as we finally awake
Waiting for joy, or for heartbreak
Or for hope to yield to a panicky ache
Waiting for calm, but alert and awake
Waiting to see, will our country break?
Just counting the days till ’21
Waiting and worrying we’ll come undone
Everyone is just waiting