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
to thou
who cut the hole
in my paper cup
just as things
were looking up
sending me
tumbling down
with a thud
to
the ground
with a most
unpleasant sound
words from my lips
that
should not be heard
by man or beast
but nonetheless
they were uttered
and then
i saw
an old priest shudder
and
even a butterfly flutter
with wings changing
from
white
to
pink
oh that i could
recall
those words
but reverse blessings
do have their place
especially when they’re
in your face
we rent this space occupying it briefly but everything in the room is ours from the furnishings to random thoughts even the broken dreams scattered throughout the years are ours so it seems strange that we cannot share this small space with whom we choose those who pretend to be our landlords keep insisting that their rules must be followed rules designed for their pleasure and their pleasure is power over others but we pay the rent