"In every American community, there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the Liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects... ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here then, is a lesson in safe logic…” – Phil Ochs, “Love Me I’m A Liberal” 1966 Baby I knew you were the one for me On our first date standing in line to vote for Bernie in the primary And we're so compatible algorithmically, a 99% match must mean it’s meant to be! I think we must’ve been made for each other At the Women's March your pussy hat stood out from all the others, And our calls for gender justice (steeped in transmisogyny) Seemed to drown out the construction sounds of prison industry. For the No Wall, No Ban protest I made anti-Trump signs Found out you'd never been to Mexico, and found a nice hotel online, I love that we stayed up so late for human rights And that we didn't go to jail, because we booked an early flight. Yeah we shook hands with the riot cops, and wished ‘em a good night! I bet our selfies with their armored trucks will get so many likes! Now news on airport televisions update us on the highlights! I hope the protest stays downtown, disrupting travel plans ain’t right! Recycled cardboard, signs, we've done our part for Civil Rights! Now let’s go back to ignoring all the shit that we don’t like. You’d better keep your outrage peaceful, man, and your demands polite, 'cause if your needs threaten our lifestyles, you'll be the ones we'll fight! Yeah if we start to feel uncomfortable, we’ll have ‘em lock you up tonight!

Maybe I’m too sensitive or maybe you’re just being shitty. Why don’t I dress my body up like me for Halloween? Why don't I dress myself up like my body for Halloween? No one would guess what I was but I'd scare them, and that scares me.

I'm not the man you're looking for. I don't care to be. This is enough for me.

CW: sexual assault, social gender dysphoria -- This seems too stupid to be real, Why's my little dick such a big fucking deal? You said you wanted all of me to kneel, so did you cum when you fucked me over? Tell me, how'd that feel? Some predictable wound you gave me to heal, my cunt's too weird for you to see the appeal. I thought you liked what you decided to feel. When I invited you over, I trusted you knew I was real.

See the heirs to the throne of “self-reliance" See their weapons of war: their suits and pseudoscience See robber barons poison living riverbeds Dakota pipeline dreams leaking out of their heads. Striking crude fool’s gold while coal coats lungs Their preaching’s only done when the profits/prophets come Til the ocean towers over highest economic peaks, they won't Take stock of their lives, they’ll just take lives with their greed/green. They don’t pretend to care enough to make that Flint water clean They’d plaster cast concrete roles in racist geography Steal from the schools to bail out killer police– fuel Genocide they call bad luck or Really Great Democracy. You know, no paved paradise will ever help them breathe free No displacement of families will put them at ease No walls no drones no borders no guns no locks no legalese Can protect them from the/a people who know solidarity. They say if there’s another tick of the Doomsday Clock Keep your passwords, house, and car, and kids, securely locked Another scrape of the hand of the Doomsday Clock Keep your mind occupied, and keep your weapons well-stocked. Just over two minutes left on the clock’s tired face They say the threat level’s red, they say we all bleed the same, They say history’s passed, and in the past it remains, That’s what you’ll say if you stop asking how things got this way.

[sounds of thunder, and of rain tapping on the metal exterior of a Palomino camper]

FUCK!!!!!!!!!

I, love you, me, and all the other gnarled little ants that fuck and die, in their battles, by the thousands, on the dirty cracking pavement, that is heated with their tender little bodies by a magnifying glass and by the ever-present sun. we are one. I, need us, we, to build up out of my dicey birth some sort of little meaning, to plant lupines while I push this goddamn boulder up the hill. And I try to make connections, try so hard to make connections, but my indiscretions limit me, still, I’m not still. I, am all, ears, as you confide in me with your whole heart we stare into a mirror showing all of what we feel, and what we normally can’t say ‘cause we deeply fear rejection, isolation, disconnection, but there’s peace in that I’m not the only one who feels this way, feels this strange. I, love my, love, ‘cause now it doesn’t feel so wrong, now that I know it’s all of us who think we are the only one who’s ever felt deranged. In this desperate search, in my mistakes and lies, in truth surmised, I find that love is most important ‘cause To love is what sustains.

From Nothing I flee. Where is the me? Caught between answers and false apathy. My bulbous head is not quite dead, But the outsides are imploding. Internal structures doomed by time, My insides are eroding. Washed up, I see. There is no me Thirsty and drowning in mortality. Eyes just see dim light and waves, The current’s overtaking. My small raft is sinking, now, My little I is fading.

Dreamt of paranoia and of hands around my throat and the black hole I was caught in could've killed me, there's no doubt. Disavow with double-talk subjugated maybe-truths, say, "oh, they're so ambiguous," say that they are of no use. Standardize and subdivide, initiate to make divine, condemn whichever gods you want but on fallacies we all rely.

[sounds of spring rain and hail tapping on the windows and walls of my apartment]