<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class=""><font color="#444444" class="">Anyone Who Is Still Trying</font></p>Any person, any human, any someone who breaks<br class=""> up the fight, who spackles holes or FedExes<br class="">ice shelves to the Arctic to keep the polar bears<br class=""> afloat, who talks the wind-rippled woman<br class="">down from the bridge. Any individual, any citizen<br class=""> who skims muck from the coughing ocean,<br class="">who pickets across the street from antigay picketers<br class=""> with a sign that reads, GOD HATES MAGGOTS,<br class="">or, GOD HATES RESTAURANTS WITH ZAGAT RATINGS<br class=""> LESS THAN 27. Any civilian who kisses<br class="">a forehead heated by fever or despair, who reads<br class=""> the X ray, pins the severed bone. Any biped<br class="">who volunteers at soup kitchens, who chokes<br class=""> a Washington lobbyist with his own silk necktie—<br class="">I take that back, who gives him mouth-to-mouth<br class=""> until his startled heart resumes its kabooms.<br class="">Sorry, I get cynical sometimes, there is so much<br class=""> broken in the system, the districts, the crooked<br class="">thinking, I’m working on whittling away at this<br class=""> pessimism, harvesting light where I can find it.<br class="">Any countryman or countrywoman who is still<br class=""> trying, who still pushes against entropy,<br class="">who stanches or donates blood, who douses fires<br class=""> real or metaphorical, who rakes the earth<br class="">where tires once zeroed the ground, plants something<br class=""> green, say spinach or kale, say a modest forest<br class="">for restless breezes to play with. Any anyone<br class=""> from anywhere who considers and repairs,<br class="">who builds a prosthetic beak for an eagle—<br class=""> I saw the video, the majestic bird disfigured<br class="">by a bullet, the visionary with a 3-D printer,<br class=""> with polymer and fidelity, with hours<br class="">and hours and hours, I keep thinking about it,<br class=""> thinking we need more of that commitment,<br class="">those thoughtful gestures, the flight afterward<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- David Hernandez</body></html>