Anyway
“An expert is just an ordinary pert under extra pressure,” -Dr. Warren Wiersbe.
In 1974, I knew I wouldn’t get to live my life
because TV broadcasters continually
reported the ice age was fast coming.
The Vietnam War detonated, boys continued to die.
In great sadness, I married, anyway,
knowing I would never have children.
By the 1980s, I had children, anyway,
even though the newspapers confirmed
acid rain was killing all life in lakes.
With an ice age still coming and acid rain
killing the aquatic life in more and more lakes,
I knew I was lucky to be alive, lucky the sky hadn’t fallen yet.
By the 1990s, with the Persian Gulf War
and the all the global warming threats,
I had to stop listening to experts
and live my life, anyway.
Anyway, today, I saw a terrible fear that I recognized
in my granddaughters’ eyes as they arrived home from school.
About the Author: Judy Lorenzen is a poet, writer, and teaching artist. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work appears in journals, magazines, anthologies and websites.
Image Credit: V Schagow “Farbfernsehgerät “Chromat 2062” CC BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
As It Ought To Be 
