For the Whistleblower, the dear-heart

Dear heart,

you saw something

that wasn’t good,

for people,

the earth,

the children,

the poor,

our health,

our families,

our time,

our investment,

our history,

our future,

and you,

wrote an email,

or a letter,

you made a phone call,

or had a meeting,

you wrote an editorial,

or met with a reporter,

or told the next one up,

or your co-workers,

or the people closest to you.

And a volcano erupted,

that created a change.

The change could have happened

in one week,

in seven weeks,

overnight,

or over a lifetime,

And you,

sat in prison,

were excecuted,

kept working,

were disappeared,

or fired,

or alienated,

shunned,

rejected,

punished,

written-up,

put under investigation,

shamed,

humiliated,

publicly attacked,

publicly or privately stripped of your credibility,

and stripped of any leadership,

influential position or place, at the table. 

You didn’t know,

the moment you decided,

that something had to be done,

and someone had to say something,

and that you would be the one to do it,

that the change would come,

thanks to you,

but you would also pay a price,

for making that change,

happen. 

9/12/14