Elizabeth Dingmann Schneider
Early Civics Lessons
Trump was president when my daughter came into this world.
She was two years old in 2020,
when I pushed her in a stroller each day to combat
the loneliness of pandemic isolation.
And so that is where we were
on November 7
when my phone buzzed with a breaking news alert
declaring Joe Biden our next president,
neighbors tumbling out their front doors
banging pots and pans
in joy and relief.
I never had to explain to her
anything about how bad it got
the first time.
But now, at age six
she is old enough to ask questions.
To know there was an election,
to want to understand
why we voted for Kamala Harris,
why we don't like Donald Trump.
And I don't know how to explain
without handing her a burden
I am not ready for her to bear.
Elizabeth Dingmann Schneider lives and writes in Minneapolis. Her collection Blood is available from Red Bird Chapbooks, where she formerly served as a poetry editor. Elizabeth’s work has also been published in Third Wednesday, The Raven Review, Atlanta Review, Naugatuck River Review, Mosaic, Streetlight Magazine, Motherscope Magazine, and Coal Hill Review.