young man on the edge of the floor at studio 54 where the girls dance in sea foam synthetic silks circled by men in iridescent suits no need to feel down a baby in the round the building of a tower tenants swimming in shit and cold water the voices in his head recall a time of expensive hamburgers opulence and AIDS just before teenage boys dissolve into the ink of The Daily News young man cemented in 1982 gloria is just a girl and she says everybody wants you hangin' on a line
Ashli Babbitt
Ashli Babbitt climbs a suicide extinguisher frienemy ripples the surface of a year Ashli Babbitt drives shouldering stories in her sack freedom persecution the border is a mess Ashli Babbitt dives backwards reality is a lie Dark to light! God knows, god sees and he is incoming!
Your First Lady
my heart goes out looking found a passion salacious gossip honor and accusations against me the promise of our future make no mistake you are the backbone let us remember you are the people who turn to violence make the United States of America what it is
I turned on today
Chickens, with their heads cut off.
boxes
chorus: Fight! Fight! Fight!
guts guts guts
He fights, and I’ll tell you.
He has the absolute right to do it.
They want it back.
the happiest people
extraordinary love, amazing movement
Chorus: Love! Love! Love!
Flip those cameras and look behind you.
monuments
gathered together
out there fighting the House.
You’re the real people.
America last.
Unbelievable, what we go through.
primary hell
China virus and scam
brazen and outrageous
never been anything like this.
evening or early in the morning
boom, these explosions
of bullshit, all of a sudden.
Who was the victor?
He got slaughtered probably, maybe it was okay.
dirty business
let everyone flow in flow in
Our brightest days are before us, our greatest achievements still wait.
Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong.
So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I know how you feel
I know your pain I know your hurt It was stolen from us You have to go home now We have to have peace We have to have law order time a thing happened have to have anybody hurt see what happens they could take it away so bad the way others are so bad and so evil I know your hurt I know your pain I know your hurt go home great people
holiday
the nurse got better then
had a stroke
she reached for a friend
who died of something else
and then a lover, an uncle
a neighbor, a teacher
I'm so sorry
she said
I wish I could be there
but I can't.
a freedom
what's the word for this gathering air damp with their breath defiant thrust of naked chin what they know they keep folded up in wallets the exercise of a right a liberty and shame
praise and worship center
she opens the door as if emerging from sleep she tried to vote early but her ride never showed my eyes drift to her hand resting on a pregnant belly behind her I see her husband laying on the floor with their little son a new citizen this is her first election only voter in the house we call a union member Local 11 someone to open the door extend a hand to her when she steps out of the car someone to walk with her to the polling center and drive her home we wait together on the steps her son plays with my shield and widens his ludic orbit he jumps bounces springs and then her chariot pulls up a young man smiles and takes her to vote
teenage voter
I find him, tall and lanky, unloading a truck with his Dad who looks at me sideways I am hoping to talk to — He's on our books as a Democrat. But the father is not. To talk to the teenage voter I have to get around this man I make myself small Just following up to make sure— the son comes closer I give him the rap turns out he's already dropped his ballot off Oh that's great! I run down our list of candidates and ask: Can we count on your support? No. I can see his Dad's eyes on him he can feel them on his back. I can't tell— is he proud or ashamed?
Kamela
The Libertarian asks what I think of Kamela and what she said about Biden in the debate I do not believe you are a racist, she said before taking him apart for cozying up with segregationists I say I am behind the criticism of his policies— how can I support Biden, he interjects, if he's a racist? I've been down this road before with the guy energized by the discovery that people on the left vote for racists as if that makes me and him the same there are moments in history, she said when states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people I forget to pivot to the story of the racism we share I return to local candidates running on conviction and compassion but he prefers to crow over my hypocrisy for a few minutes, sitting with him on his porch, I am lost it feels like I am arguing with a man who want to fuck the people who bother him I take him in, bearded motorcycle lover with a good belly living in a comfortable suburban home in an all-but-gated community an answer to a question that was lingering in my head Kamela and that little girl was me.
