Fight or flight
is not a survival instinct
but a human construct
supported by the almighty strength of self-deceit.
 
As if the doors of right and wrong
we pass through
willingly or unwillingly
are marked and therefore define us.
 
From birth to death
we fall through the deep well of injustice
deeper and darker
if only to reach the surface
as if that is far enough.
 
A lifeline
we wait
and wait, get distracted,
forget and wait some more.
 
Disembodied from heartache
and human suffering,
the loss of who we are
while we are perpetually becoming.

Brother sister
friend and militant
lover
radical extremist,
an essential need
or existential threat
a question of empathy
or detachment.
 
A thief who steals your heart
your country
your culture.
The belief in a lawless system
of trending posts and tweets.
Oh, the outrage and endless debates…
 
In search of parallel truths
with the warmth of unanimity,
in the quest for equality
the vanishing point
of injustice.
 
For nation building and community
or hustled into conformity
to spread deception and conspiracy
without the bloody knife.
 
Darwinian
like hunger and thirst
when instinct loses control.
 
Subvert or submit
to a higher authority
or lower expectations.
 
Behind the cloak of approval
origins of ancient dissent,
naked under layers of appearances
exposed by empty rhetoric.
 
To shelter in the arms of your beloved
flooded with tenderness.
To arm the shelter for combat
locked and loaded with hostilities,
real or imagined.
 
Of the longing
to belong
that unites and divides,
coalescing opposing forces.
 
A matter of relevance?
A loss of innocence?
A question of identity?
 
For honor and respect.
To further the narrative.
A source of frailty or strength?

The light so bright it blinds
in the dark where facts are not so kind
and intrude on bold faced lies
that don’t apply without a spine.
 
Inflatable mascots under Russo influence
flipping back and forth in gleeful defiance.
 
Sleepless nights of waking dreams
To screams of border children
the next in line
for needless slaughter by vicious regimes
and brutal proxies.
 
Sleepless nights of waking dreams where botniks
data mine our lives
until they drive the “I”
right out of existence.
Compliance not required.
With each involuntary adherence
as natural as breath or a sigh.
 
Waking dreams of bad anime
Oh god of idle time
that trashes the mind with rancor and hate
to live stream violence, a front row seat
after endless games of Candy Crush.
 
Sleepless nights of waking dreams
legislating arrogance
to rule the innocent
and shatter tenderness
as we demolish what little is left
of our benevolence.
 

When you step off a cliff
the fall is precipitous
but if you stop to survey the emptiness
you can't deny the loss.

When all the world is infused with a kind of madness,
only the most morally reprehensible example of humanity doesn't suffer
but the light of love ignites the flames,
shooting out over the bleakness that surrounds us,
one soul recognizing the other,
instilling the hope that all is not lost.

Axis, a turn without hyperbole
timeless as infinity not to measure
progress or retreat
when the heart has been neglected for more worldly things
immaterial.
Intransigent in its transience
and fundamentally irrelevant.
In the spirit of passion and empathy a galaxy,
a shower of meteoric vibrancy streaks through this universe
fusing past, present and future in the moment
4.6 billion years
to inspire our humanity one by one.

In a car accident, everything happens in slow motion. You see it coming and you can’t stop the outcome. As time slows, the anticipation of devastation and destruction intensifies. Adrenaline courses through your veins but it won’t help you escape your destiny. Sweaty, shaky, heart pounding, you know you’re losing control. The blood rushing to your brain brings a clarity that is terrifying.

Then it’s morning. You wake up bleary-eyed in a state of disbelief postmortem. You survived but your country is the casualty. For the first time in your life you sense what it must've been like for Native Americans. Disenfranchised, displaced, dismissed, attacked and invaded, unable to survive without the resources that belong to them.

This is America? Your ancestors tried to warn you but you succumbed to the veneer of material comfort, or the lack thereof, believing in the fantasy of the American Dream. Your so-called democracy was used against you, your media complicit. Never before have you witnessed the free fall as your institutions dismantled The Land of the Free.

All the DREAMers who must hide in the light of day and move from place to place to evade capture and deportation. If the behavior indicators of the TSA don’t spot them, sending money back home makes you a moving target. Impoverishment our new export. Child bearers will be denied care, contraception and abortion with the destruction of Planned Parenthood. Some forced to abandon their children in the streets. Married queers will live in dread fear of annulment and the resurgence of hate crimes against friends and family. Muslims will be profiled, discriminated against and accused of extremism as they're victimized by their xenophobic neighbors and their own community. Women must accept sexism and misogyny so evident in the outcome of this election as standard operating procedure. While the working class has been lulled into a state of amnesia about who and what is responsible for their poverty, all minorities, each and every one are sinking slowly in the quicksand of fascism, racism and hate with This Land is Our Land, the hue and cry of White Anglo Saxon America.

As with all great loss we suffer anger and grief, untethered and disoriented.  We live in fear of instability and uncertainty, acutely aware of our mortality. A citizen without a country is like a planet without gravity. We float unable to grab onto anything and look down over the dark abyss. How can we possibly lift ourselves out of a nightmare that never ends?  

Please, oh please, wake me up.