And yet
Followed by some uplifting statement
You’ve still got your health
Look on the bright side
Better luck next time
It’s how you play the game that counts

Hearts and flowers ruffles and flourishes
Kudos pour in for the lifeguard
An ordinary person with extraordinary skill
For an extraordinary responsibility
In the service of the ordinary general need
For safety and security

What are the facts is a basic but not profound question
The injury will heal to some extent
So there’s a bright side no doubt
But a dim side too demands
What is the significance of any fact

Marian’s ancestor dug ditches
And died when the fifty-foot-high wall
Of a burned-out factory
Collapsed upon him and his coworkers
And his boss

Everybody alive when that disaster happened
Is now dead
An insignificant fact
When one who didn’t have to die
Died in a deadly job

I meant to satirize Pollyannaism
To laugh a Positive Mental Attitude
Into impotence
But I just can’t find it funny

And multitudes will continue so to die
Many after suffering more prolonged than that
Of Great-Grandfather
Although digging ditches is no day at the beach
The only bright side being that
The suffering of any is the suffering of all

And yet
When we look on the bright side
And reassure ourselves that we’re doing alright
When somebody else drowns
We mute the facts and dwell in falsehood

It’s not okay
You saw the picture
The man drowned with his daughter
To dwell in falsehood
Is a criminal act