I am angry at this June sky, filled with these stupid fucking clouds
I am angry at this world and the people who run it, for all the obvious fucking reasons.
I am angry at these fuckers who commit violence, just to prove the world is too dangerous to change
I am angry that these words in my head could fill a novel, but keep coming out as these stupid little poems
I am angry at the always waiting
I am angry at these voices in my head pretending to be people with nothing fucking nice to say
I am angry at stupid things that won't work just how I want them to work
I am angry at these messes that won't clean themselves up
I am angry at this cavernous grief haunting the edges of my life
I am angry that so many people are falling off the edge and I can't save them
I am angry that my body is soft and broken in places, that it moves me through my days in the same safe ways over and over again when all I want is to run and fuck and feel and kick shit
Today I am angry that I am angry
I will probably still be angry tomorrow, too
#bookofpoems #pandemic #revolution #quarantine #bookoflists
These moments that overcome us
These crashing waves of fear and rage
Let them tear away the weights that drag us down
Let us rise up
and breathe
#bookofpoems #revolution
White supremacy tells you, you know what there is to know about the world
White supremacy tells you, what you know of the world is all there is
White supremacy tells you, we must have all the answers before we can ask the question
White supremacy tells you, millions of people crying out in the street couldn’t know better than you, safe in your home
White supremacy tells you, being stopped by a man with a gun for a busted taillight is an acceptable part of life
White supremacy tells you, compliance is respect and punishment is justice
White supremacy tells you, others don’t deserve the kind of life you got for free
White supremacy tells you lies
White supremacy stole your hope for a better world before you even knew it was there
#revolution #bookoflife #bookofpoems
For too long
the seeds have been planted
the soil has been tended
this garden has lain hidden
in the shadow of those who refused to see
But finally
the sun is shining
and life is bursting forth
this garden will bear the fruits of liberation
and it does not grow in peace
#revolution #bookofpoems
Words dance around atrocities
A predictable refrain
Just say their names
Sing an incantation for your soul
Fix your heart in its place
Go out into the world
And burn it down
#revolution #bookofpoems
For too long
the seeds have been planted
the soil has been tended
this garden has lain hidden
in the shadow of those who refused to see
But finally
the sun is shining
and this revolution
does not grow in peace
#revolution #bookofpoems
Remember this moment
soft and full
your child playing in the yard
neighbors out on walks
almost like the life you used to have
Remember this moment
A new world is being born
with shouts of pain and blood and rage
with sighs of exhaustion and fragile hope
Remember this moment
As we wait to cry
tears of joy
hearing the sweet sound
of the world’s first breath
holding its tender body safe in our arms
or
tears of sorrow
for a world lost
in stillborn tragedy
Remember this moment
sunlight through teardrop leaves
the chaotic refrain of a 4-year-old’s song
the touch of a hand
Remember this moment
It may be swallowed up in the end
#bookofpoems #revolution #pandemic
I sit on the porch
in the soft morning air
wondering
what fires rage today
Entire worlds turned upside down
breath caught in throats
sorrow turning to ash on our tongues
But here
the same leaves still rustle in the breeze
the same flowers bloom
the same cars are still parked in their same places
as yesterday
And I wonder
how can this world be
how has this world not crumbled in grief
how has it not been torn to shreds
how can we go on
like this is just the way it is
how can we ask so much of people
to hold this pain
bursting at the seams
how can we
We set fire to souls
and then ask them to burn
where we can’t see
#revolution #bookofpoems
Every day I see
Black fathers
sharing joy with their children
giving love
giving time
giving themselves
fat babies giggling with adoration
My own father
would not care for me as a baby
Leaving me in my crib to cry
while mom tried to run errands
guess which one is allowed
to breathe
#bookofpoems #revolution
Outside
people rush
to get their hair cut
like their overgrown and poorly-shorn-at-home locks are not
a badge of perseverance
or a mark of passage
still unfinished
Outside
people rush
to the next beginning
before they have even seen
the previous ending
#bookofpoems #quarantine #pandemic