two new poems
Some of the best times in my life happened while travelling around the land now known as North America with the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe: Ananda Esteva, Josiah Luis-Alderete, Junebug, George Tirado (RIP), Leroy Moore, Solidad Di Costa, Raw Knowledge and Dani Montgomery (now Gabriel). Our friendships last to this day in various forms, my poetic output has slowed considerably since the end of the Molotovs around 2005. Here are some newer pieces, and there may be some more to come.
LET’S BUILD A WALL
let’s build a wall
and sleep tight nighty night and
dream in snowy
monotone dreams of
snowy monotone futures
let’s build a wall
and scream into the night
you will not erase me
you will not change me
you will never please me
let’s build a wall
i’m the every-est
every man
who has ever set foot
on this land
so let’s build a wall
and blame it on the middle class
and build it with the finest ingredients
tar and feathers
bayonets and muskets
manure and druthers
recycled hangman’s rope
buffalo bones and arrowheads
organic cotton
mom’s apple pie
red dirt and bullet shells
unexploded munitions & old computers
tuskegee experiments
broken glass and bullet shells
ancient trees turned into pentagon papers
crows feet & bear claws
let’s not fuck around
our country let’s fix it
with a neon crucifix
with bed sheets
with brown shirts
with ashes from history books
let’s build a wall
and put television screens on it
going to be the big brother
that big brother always wanted
let’s build a wall and
build a national park there sell
blue bottled coffee
for blue blooded people there
let’s build a hotel there too
let’s build more walls
through every street
every city
every country side
so that wherever you go
there’s a border to cross
and the tender hum of
surveillance
sings us to sleep at night
let’s build a wall
with picnic tables and barbeque pits
let’s build a wall
and not think bad thoughts anymore
and never turn off our televisions anymore
and set our cell phones set only to kill
and never to stun
let’s build that wall and stop worrying about
which lives matter
because the rainbow is retired now
let’s build a wall
make it so tall
make it so long
make it so you can’t get enough
off tall long walls
let’s build a wall
and pay for it with
bounced checks
bnd fentanyl scripts
let’s build a wall.
IT IS TIME TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
it is time to survive a plague
stay in doors keep good company
read octavia butler and bertolt brecht
binge watch something that makes you happy without guilt or regret
then binge read dubois + gramsci + goldman + davis
then pietri + angelou + alderete + shuck + jordan
listen to music that helps you see beyond walls like simone + strummer
sing a battle song
plan for what comes next
if you can’t stay indoors, remind yourself
that you deserve the world
you have a right to a roof
the walls, the kitchen sink
a full fridge you deserve
house keys not handcuffs
when it is time to come outside
march like selma
march like ferguson
march like oakland
protect what you love
act up + fight back
shut down
redistribute without permission
when it is time to make decisions
be like the zapatistas
when you need a new constitution
check out the ten-point program
when it is time to heal
don’t wait for permission
when it is time to escape
find your north star
when it is time to help someone else escape
sew a map into a blanket
when it is time to vote
vote
when it is time to riot
riot
when it is time to burn
burn it like a berrigan
when fascists come to your town be an anti-klan human
when they are drive from your town
get down and raise a glass
it is time to survive a plague