Breakfast of Colonizers

White people sure don’t like being uncomfortable when we talk about racism,

not I’m afraid my child might die if he wears a hoodie uncomfortable,

not I’m terrified that if I reach for my wallet I will be killed uncomfortable,

not handcuffed before you are shot uncomfortable,

not a knee pinning you to the ground uncomfortable,

not I’m getting shot for being in my own apartment uncomfortable,

not even sitting in my own discomfort so I can examine it uncomfortable,

just I don’t want to feel bad while I eat my Wheaties uncomfortable

28 May 2020

When Nothing Else Made You Listen

If you said not to protest “like that” when there were repeated peaceful protests…

If you ignored or denied the reasons why the peaceful protests were happening, ensuring they were not addressed and voices were not heard…

If you are condemning looting louder than you are condemning the murder of George Floyd...

If you are mourning the loss of store windows more than the loss of a life...

If you are not enraged that the murderer, captured on camera, still roams the streets a free man…

… you are part of the problem.

Yes, there are better solutions. And we have failed at them every time.

Presidential Death Threats

The president retweets
“The only good Democrat
is a dead Democrat,”
and it barely
registers as news,
because we already knew
he could stand
in the middle
of fifth avenue
and encourage
the fatal shooting of
sixty-five million of us

and not lose any votes

29 May 2020

MSNBC article

Watch it performed

Whether You Stepped on This Train Intentionally or Not, You Can’t Deny the Motion

There’s I’m going to push my knee into your neck, on camera, with my hands in my pockets, until you die racism.

There’s I’m going to defend what he just did as standard practice racism.

There’s I’m going to call the cops hoping they do that to you too racism.

There’s I’m going to look the other way because it doesn’t affect me racism.

There’s I use racial slurs (perhaps just at home) and fly confederate flags racism.

There’s I can’t be racist because I have a black friend racism.

There’s I don’t see race (so I can’t see racism) racism.

There’s I’m okay voting for a racist because I think he’s good for the economy racism.

There’s I don’t think he’s a racist because I’m okay with all the (racist) things he says racism.

There’s I don’t want to be racist, but I was born white in a country built on systemic racism that never went away, it was just forced into adjustments, and I’m not aware enough or willing to do the work to examine it racism.

There’s This list is bullshit, I’m not racist racism.

There’s I don’t want to be racist but I was born white in a country built on systemic racism that still infects every system and I am working to examine and challenge the internalized messages that have been surrounding me my whole life and questioning how we can do better; I realize racism exists, even inside me, and I don’t want it to, so I’m alert and listening and trying as best I can to remove it.

White folks, you are somewhere on this list, and if you aren’t in the last category, you’re in the wrong place.

28 May 2020

An Apology to My Red Baseball Hat

You sit neglected,
like the last kid to be 
picked at recess,

A flaw in yourself
you can’t comprehend, 
one that wasn’t noticed before

Leaving only distant memories
of what it felt to be perched
proudly, frequently, on my head

Now you find yourself 
smothered under others,
whose place atop the coat rack 
ensure you won’t be tonight’s choice 

How could you understand that,
through no fault of your own,
someone could make an entire color of hat
stand for hatred and intolerance
and leave you buried,
like humanity, 
in a shadow of darkness,
wondering if you will ever again 
see the light

27 May 2020

When Bullshit is Your Only Superpower

Faster than a speeding Pinocchio,

more hot air than a steam locomotive,

able to leap truths in a single alternative bound

Until he crumbles into a pouting orange ball

because fact-check is his kryptonite

27 May 2020

Aol: Trump threatens social media after Twitter fact-checks him

The Weight of a Nation Pressed Against Your Neck (For George Floyd)

An entitled white man’s knee,

under an unrestrained

and unpunished badge of law,

pushing maliciously 

against a black man’s neck,

making him beg unsuccessfully

for the right to his own life

until his final breath is squashed

is a most fitting 

metaphor for the 

history of our country

and I wish it were

only history

and I wish it were

only metaphor

26 May 2020

Watch it performed

Out of Breath

I’m tired 
of your “I feel inconvenienced”
emergency phone calls
filled with feigned hysterics,
putting people’s lives on the line
to protect your frail mask 
of entitlement

I’m tired 
of the police showing up
and adding another name
to their discarded pile of lives;
another Eric Garner,
another Sandra Bland

I’m tired 
of the beatings and bullets
that brought an end to George Floyd,
Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, 
Philando Castile, John Crawford,
Stephon Clark, Terence Crutcher,
Amadou Diallo, Walter Scott, Jordan Edwards
Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, 
Atatiana Jefferson, Jonathan Ferrell,
Oscar Grant, Botham Jean,
twelve-year-old Tamir Rice,
seven-year-old Aiyana Jones

I’m tired
of how long and still 
incredibly incomplete that list is

I’m tired 
of your tiresome 
excuses of justification 

I’m tired
of white vigilantes
foaming at the mouth
to add more names to the list:
Ahmaud Artery,
Jordan Davis,Trayvon Martin

I’m tired 
of videos that break my heart
but somehow don’t convince a jury 

I’m tired
of guessing how many 
suffer the same fate, 
unwatched, unknown,
without a video,
without a name
ever passing by our ears 

And I’m so fucking tired
of your closed eyes 
and your white denial 
that there is even 
a problem to be fixed

26 May 2020

Laying Flowers on the Tomb of Peace

I’m sorry 

for your fallen sacrifice

and for those left to mourn

your permanent absence

I’m sorry for

inconvenient oil prices,

fading poll numbers,

and intentional misinformation

I’m sorry for 

unprovoked attacks,

eyes for preemptive eyes

I’m sorry we made sure

your only chance 

to attend college

was to roll the dice

on whether you would first 

enhance or shatter 

your brain 

I’m sorry 

so many countries 

decided mothers’ cries

were acceptable 

collateral damage

I hope 

we don’t use the valiant 

offering of your life

to justify continuing 

this repetitive cycle

until it engulfs your

grieving children,

and theirs after them

I’m sorry 

that after all these 

years of existence

the best we have achieved

is holding peace hostage

at the end of a barrel

25 May 2020

Watch the video performance with Lennart Lundh

I-80 Is a Ribbon of Death

Idaho to Pennsylvania,

thirty-five hours of road

Nature beckons through my window,

fields and trees, lush and lovely,

bright with the colors of spring

My focus, my peace,

interrupted, shattered 

by the procession of endless of identical trucks 

Crammed tightly,

bound for a hell I can’t help but imagine,

Passengers whose value is dictated 

solely by the taste of their flesh

Or else empty,

because death has already commenced

As the trucks whiz by,

light pours through the holes, 

the empty spaces

only recently, 

like their former passengers, 

devoid of movement and life

Even if I would avert my eyes,

I would feel them there

I am trapped between 

opposing views

On my right,

life germinates from the seed

On my left,

life makes a final, unheeded plea

From one window,

open spaces

From the other, 

confinement

This side,

beautiful prairies

But that side,

diesel, blood, death

Peace calls starboard,

but port offers only

profound grief

20 May 2020

(based on the experiences of my friend, Sandra Ganey)

Breakfast Just Out of Reach

The moment my toast 

sits deliciously 

atop my plate,

Michael Jackson’s 

chorus on Rockwell’s 

song instantly returns 

to my head

And looking down

at the begging eyes

and unquenchable hunger

of the pug at my feet,

someone was indeed

watching me

He likes his love best

when it’s topped

with peanut butter

21 May 2020

(photo by Brady Allison)

Rockwell's song

The Flames of Our Future Let Out a Few Obligatory Puffs

We were warned

by Orwell, Bradbury,

and Atwood

We were exposed

by Morrison, Walker, 

and Baldwin

We were challenged

by Hurston, Vonnegut,

and Adichie

We marched on,

heedless to the warnings;

buried beneath 

our own greed

and hollow claims 

of righteousness

Twisted by the

tangled arms of corruption,

that realized burning books

becomes unnecessary

if you convince

the population

not to bother 

opening the covers

18 May 2020

inspired by a comment by Theresa Göttl Brightman

Watch it performed

Who Needs Hair When Your Heart is Made of Gold (For Shirley Monnin)

The kindness 

in your eyes 

sparkles

as you rock

that bald head

Hurdles thrown 

in your way

fail to dampen

your joy, your faith,

your love

Which you spread

without exception 

Ensuring that

in all directions,

beauty shines

29 Feb 2020

Drinking Stocks, Breathing Bonds

That we should be 

willing to die

in order to save 

the economy 

for our grandchildren

is a strange 

rallying cry

from a party

unwilling to 
pinch any pennies

to curb our 

rapid destruction

to the planet

we were taking

from under

our grandkids’ feet

Perhaps they can

drink stocks and

breathe bonds

when that is all 

we leave them

5 May 2020

NYMag Article

Huff Post Article

Additional Huff Post article