i asked the brown bag prophet if it bothered him that the city had cancelled the annual fireworks he said ain’t nothing
to
celebrate
this
fourth of july
won’t even
make
a good wake
for
a dying nation
a nation
with
an ever growing
body bag
count
bagging up
blacks
and
browns
those grown
and
those
who’ll
never
get to grow
shot dead
as they read
what a great nation we are
should have read
we were
and
when we’re done
bagging up
the nra’s
school lunches
we’ll starting
filling up the bags
with
botched abortions
or
young mothers
who died
giving birth
to
a child
demanded by
and
abandoned by
good christians
protecting
a moral code
written
on rice paper
promoted
by
demigods
of
greed
so please
don’t ask me why
i’m
not celebrating
or
upset
about
cancelling
a fantasy freedom event
we are the people
and if you invent new laws
we will not follow
if you reject women’s rights
we will not follow
if gender roles offend you
we will not follow
if decisions are racist
we will not follow
if you aid and abet crime
we will not follow
if power’s your only goal
we will not follow
if our voices go unheard
we will not follow
what we do follow makes law
we’re the final judges
the edges
of
the dream
have frayed
the finely
woven stories
of
youth
have
not
held up
over time
the rough surfaces
of
reality
have worn away
the protective
layers
of
myths
and
the religious strands
of
those
gospel weavers
and
preachers
who
now stand
indistinct
from
the sinners
they
warned
us
of
their robes
now bare
clear marks
of
truth’s whip
and
their hands
are dirtied
from
the coins
gathered
from
the temple floor
money changers
now
tell weavers
how
to run
the looms