against citizenship

i inherited a fear of rivers, a suspicion
of backseats, an itch on the back of my neck
when too many people are looking at me.
it’s from my parents & their parents &
their parents & so on. one long breath
i must push into this world. better to laugh isn’t it?
to undo the knives at my throat, i put on
a jester’s hat & point a gun at my own skull.
the trigger releases confetti & me. who doesn’t sweat
walking across bridges? back away from the guard
rail. don’t stand too close to ledges. dear
Langston, my parents’ dreams didn’t explode,
they piled like dishes in the sink. the bacteria
in the water rotting our sunlight. dear Pedro,
Juan, Miguel, Milagros, Olga, Manuel are still
dying yesterday, today, & will die again tomorrow.
i can hear your voices: when did josé get so
cyclical? i liked it better when he was funny.
i have news. the jester you love still carries
a gun. why don’t you put your head to it, America,
& find out if it shoots confetti or.

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against citizenship

you do not need papers. do not need papel
picado. aqui, you do not need to speak
Spanish. over there, hablan español
y ingles. with papers, they doubted
your lungs. claimed you hid lakes
in your spine. what did the papers
say? nada bueno. obituaries already
printed with our names. do not
believe everything you read. do
not need a blue passport to know
the blues travel. my song is an
accordion song. when squeezed,
it makes harmony. that isn’t consent.
you do not need to be squeezed.
do not need to be juiced. you are not
this country’s bounty pickers, you are
its bounty. its beauty. you are a nation already:
song of my song. when you breathe, i breathe.
repeat: we. do not need papers to be. we.

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promo: hater’s anthem

enough of love. the hippies had it wrong—
they stuck daisies into rifles
& the rifles ate the daisies
& grew into tanks. all that
turn the other cheek business
just got more of our cheeks slapped.

love your enemy sounds like advice
your enemy would give you.

you—

i’m talking to you now—
me & you don’t need to like each other
we definitely don’t need to love each other—

i’m saying you & i have a common enemy.
his statue is up in every town square.
his face stamped on our money.
his voice echoing from every television.
the enemy of my enemy
doesn’t have to be my friend.

we don’t need to join out of love—
love is just a slogan used
to sell chocolates & roses.
let the history books call us haters—
let the record show not everyone applauded
during the king’s coronation.

let everyone know when the king bowed for the crown,
some of us dared to dream of guillotines.

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