Years compressed
a blank slate the wish
instead of a history redundant,
intransigent, intolerable.
More of the same without a new outcome,
only more virulent in its expression.


Unlike most long term relationships
that fade over time, lose traction,
lose passion, lose significance.
Released unconditionally, untainted by loss.


But this thing, this thing we have created
is darker than dark, from the deepest part of the known,
broadcasts despair and channels ever living memory into
one single thought. When will it ever end?

Just yesterday we walked down Highland Avenue wondering if we'd ever get there but not really caring. Those languid summer nights when the future was left to the imagination. Knowing we walked down that street together and smelled those magnolia blossoms and ran our hands across your bald head, feeling the soft courseness of new growth. That's all, dad. The love, the need, the possibility. The eternal walk. Down the street that matters.

you hate like no one before you.
you excel in the discipline
as if racism and homophobia are lines of reasoning
like cognitive science.
how dare you take over my country
with your white supremacy, your venomous attacks,
your vitriole and your slander.
how dare you instigate right wing militias and foment terror.
how dare you recruit our vulnerable soldiers by
justifying the murder of fundamentalists like you
in the name of the rapture.
and how dare you abduct our children
with your pseudo pop culture rock concerts in Philadelphia,
your propagandist films and your bible belt weekends where you
convince them nothing else matters, not their lives, their love,
their families, their country or their futures.
how dare you.

 - inspired by the documentary SILHOUETTE CITY