the bleeding horse, avenged: November 2018

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

ONE FOR KING SHITBAG

Dear Donald Trump, We’re Not Afraid of You.

Dear Donald Trump,

I am an American citizen and I am fearful of you.

That is to say—I fear your ignorance, your recklessness, and your incompetence because they place this country in great peril.

I fear your disregard for our Constitution, your contempt for our Rule of Law, and your lack of anything resembling a working moral compass, as you repeatedly bulldoze the pillars of our Republic.

I fear the bigotry you so irresponsibly fuel, the violence you give Americans permission to inflict upon others, the contempt you leverage of people with brown skin and foreign birthplaces and love for someone of the same gender.

I fear the coming flood of funerals for people who will die by the guns you force upon our citizenry—and by Cancer due to the care you insist on denying them.

I fear the opportunistic men and women in the Government and the Church who’ve sold their souls and abandoned their convictions for Supreme Court seats, Cabinet appointments, and Prayer Breakfast pulpits.

I fear the supremacists and the bigots, the sexual predators, and the trigger-happy, violent men who have all been emboldened by your consent.

I fear the politicized Christian Church you’ve polluted by your association, the toxic religion you’ve released into the blood stream, and the unthinkable atrocities you commit while name dropping a God you clearly don’t believe in.

I fear the stomach-turning precedent you’ve set in the office you hold; for falsehood, for cruelty—and for abject malice toward the very people that office is intended to represent and protect.

Yes, in countless ways I deeply fear the near irreparable damage you’re doing to the country I call home and love dearly, and to the people who live and raise families and do work and dream dreams here.

I am incredibly fearful, but make no mistake, Donald Trump—I am not afraid of you.

I am not afraid of you, because even with the greatest seat of power, you are a spectacularly small man.

I am not afraid of you because you are not worthy of my fear, because that would mean respecting you—and I do not.

I am not afraid of you because I know a quivering bully when I see one.

I am not afraid of you because you, like all bullies—are a fraud and a coward.

I am not afraid of you because I recognize a terrified man-child who knows that he has lied and cheated and threatened his way to get things he knows he doesn’t deserve, and will soon lose.

I am not afraid of you because the louder you scream, the more you thrash and bluster, the more you rage in all cap rants, the more you spit and posture—the more it becomes clear that you are afraid.

And I see you clearly.

I see your smallness and your unworthiness.

We all do, those of us whose eyes are clear and open.

And that’s why Donald Trump, while we fear for our country and for our children and for the planet and for the unfathomable harm you’re causing—we are not afraid of you.

We are the vast majority.

We are people of every shape and shade.
We are cisgender and transgender.
We are immigrants and refugees and homegrowns.
We are male and female and gender fluid.
We are Christian and Muslim, Jew and Buddhists, Sihk and Hindu.
We are humanists and atheists and agnostics.

We are We the People; together, united, unshakeable.

Together we will resist you.

And together we will outlast you.

Because we are the thing making America great.

A WAY TO KILL ONLY THE TRULY DESERVING

man drowning in a second story room

sunlight in january
but no shadows

a young boy
left to die in a locked room

i speak of this too often
i know
but can’t shake the image

can do nothing but
spit on the idea of god
and listen to my son’s quiet breathing
as he sleeps beside me

and i have walked away
from all of my friends
or they have walked away from
whoever i was at the time

i have spent too many hours
reading morning in the burned house
in the darkening light of early evening with
all of my small bitter possessions
gathered tight around me

"we make noise for a reason"
i say
but quietly
and this stranger next to me
kisses my forehead

she understands how easily
faith
leads to desperation