right and left are not
the only directions and
black and white are not
the only shades and
men and women are not
the only humans and
gay and straight are not
the only way to love them
computers may be
zeroes and ones
but life is non-binary
it’s so funny how
a nation founded on
slave labour
thinks the solution
to every goddamn thing
is “work harder”
if you squeeze
blood
from a stone
its not the
stone’s
blood
how are my children
supposed to stand tall
with a bulletproof backpack
full of white history
it comes suddenly
the way a rainstorm does
(it had been building
for some time, unnoticed)
milk, and roses, and
she's gone
and the sky opens up
to weep with us
one hundred fifty thousand dead
we lost an entire palmdale
you crow for freedom
if your mouth were a breast
you would be so quick to cover it
lest our children see your shame
draining the rivers
and letting us run through
your sprinklers
is not philanthropy
don’t confuse
what you had to do
to survive
with
what you’ll have to do
to live
somehow
a poor white mother patches her sons shoes with
linoleum tiles and
a poor asian mother turns last nights rice into
todays congee and
a poor black mother folds a twenty in the shape of
christmas morning and
somehow
silicon valley is the peak
of innovation
said the crow to the carcass
“you could fly too if only
you were clever like me”