I press my hand on top of the pulse of this country
It pushes back
hard
I keep my balance while I watch it breathe
A heartless place I thought this was,
but here it is in all its raw. Still gasping
and boiling a bloody fever we’re still sweating to break
we wake with sand scratched throats and only cruel offerings
from the sink that drip with lead and oil and
this morning, I celebrate that the face of white American imperialism
is no longer black or handsome or has a jump shot or can carry a tune of gospel
or has hair thick as my baby brother’s
Bless the clarity of this moment,
the singular focus that allows me now to name the storm a storm
and not love it even a little
But instead count the ways to tear down a wall
Remember our people have always been tearing down walls
From the rising condominiums in west Oakland
To the concrete cells in Pelican Bay
Yesterday, the Philippines Supreme Court ruled
to plant a dictator’s corpse into a heroes’ memorial
Remember, there will always be evil to uproot.
And let this moment be an uprooting
let it be a prelude to empire crumbling
to the slaughter of the beasts of hatred
that live and feed in the warm dark of all of our hearts
Our hearts
ain’t ready to collapse under the regimen of hate
Despair wants us to remodel this new home
Order new locks & paint our walls red.
Think us, moldable until we are destructible.
Think we won’t build a home out of our rage.
Think we won’t heal from this moment.
Think we won’t revolt.
