I’m scared for my existence
wake up every day fearing
the call for extinction

in an effort to keep myself informed
I find the world around me deformed
my perception erased by cruel reality

the court has adjourned
and found me guilty
of the crime of grasping
at happiness like straws

but what does the news say?

that our president “favors
blunt force”, that our oligarch-
in-chief’s nazi salute is a simple
“hand gesture” that can’t possibly strike
fear into the millions of voices that
scream inside of me

that’s what the news says

not a word for the attempted
outlawing of people who 
fight every day to be accepted–
instead we’re treated like infected;
a problem to be corrected.

and yet there’s no objection
just vapid acceptance
of being stepped on by fascists
while we’re lost to time like Magnus.

The news has no use 
for people like me.
we garner no sympathy.
our stories don’t make them money.

what about what the news doesn’t say?

that a convicted felon has been given a position
to sew division with every illegal decision
all the crimes of his past effectively forgiven;
with its silence, the news gives him permission.
listen. 

that’s the sound of complicity,
of supporting fascism implicitly,
speak out, think differently
don’t go along willfully.

don’t wait for the acts of bigotry.
don’t simply let this racist infantry
occupy the borders of our lives
so that you can live easily–

have some sympathy. 

What does the news know about living?

life is not a solitary act.

life is not lived in passive voice.

life is more than a hamster wheel of perpetual suffering.

to live is to love each other 
as we face down the barrel of a gun.
to be each other’s defender.
and to know that when we’re gone
there’s someone still here, to remember.