Suits, ties

hair perfected.

A tense smile

emerges.

No handshake,

the end of civility.

Before it starts

the tension is palatable,

hanging there

before the questions

even start.

Two people on

opposite sides of

the fence.

Isis, locker room talk,

taxes and lost e-mails.

All discussed but

not at all settled.

Side step this,

avoid that.

Defend yourself

even if it causes you to go

low.

“I will go after you,

prosecute you”.

“You don’t have the

temperament to be President”.

There was always a bit

of rough going, a bit of

nastiness in these

Presidential debates,

but never like this.

We are fractured,

unable to reach the

middle ground or

consensus.

What has caused us

to go so far apart from

each other?

One side has the government

involved in helping the everyman, the poor,

the sick, and the downtrodden.

The other side has the government

totally uninvolved, each to his own,

each does the best for him/herself.

Work hard and everyone can succeed

is their motto and if we have enough

we can be charitable.

Maybe this is the cost

for putting a reality star up

for the biggest job on earth.

Our debates are a circus, a sideshow, go low

and then lower to get more viewers.

I just feel sadness, sad at the state

we have all come to in politics.

Still I keep thinking, we are all one

together, all made of the same cells.

Maybe our humanity will

rise above all this craziness

and somehow we will shake hands

and return to civility.

Empathy and kindness reign on.