we all remember
where we were
watching the towers
burn and fall
knowing that things would
never be the same at all
disbelief at first, or
had an action movie
slipped into the news

no, it was real
and then twenty years
of vengeful repercussion
of military posturing
of suffering for many
we watched
the baddies being painted
good and evil
being redefined
virtue confused
impotence and power
conflated
lies and spin
consecrated
truth
alternated
idiot rich guys
promoted
tax for the poor
promulgated
democracy
desecrated
climate destruction
accelerated
by denialist
complacency
inequality
more concentrated
goodness and morality
infiltrated

by posturing political
pus weasels
venal vultures
of self interest
grasping for
short term dominance

and then ..
complacency pervaded
as absurdity
was accepted
as our new state of normal
and the height
of compassion
was owning a dog
and tut tutting
as refugees marched
across our news screens

and now we
bemoan being isolated
from being contaminated
we are mostly relegated
to stay in our mansions
while dinner is contemplated
have you been vaccinated?

while barnsey
cried like a refugee
i ate like one this week
a statement of support
for those not as lucky
about the lottery
of this global inequity
a little lesson for me
well fed and free
in knowing food
in knowing gratitude
in knowing hunger
in knowing anger
in knowing want
and saying don't
dismiss humanity
not as free
a glimpse for me
a little empathy
for life as refugee

I am the American Man.
I stand strong and tall,
Heads above the rest.
I shout my name and proclaim my greatness.

I am blind, yes.
I am deaf, yes.
But I’ll be ****** if I am made mute by progress—
Equality,
Change.

I revel in the status quo.
I thrive in inequity,
Sitting in my penthouse above the mindless throngs
I am privilege.

I do not see poverty.
I do not see race.
I do not see systemic oppression.

I am blind.

I do not hear the gunshots of the police.
I do not hear the protests of angry young men in the streets.
I do not hear their demands for rights guaranteed them under the Constitution.

I am deaf.

I speak out against the immigrants,
For they are rapists and lazy to boot.
I do not turn down those who would support me,
**** though they are, they are more like Kin to me.

I yell change while promising the status quo and I am invincible and strong and God-made and immortal and I am invincible and I am all that is right with this world.

My words fall on hungry ears,
Desperate for a turn away from change and Socialism and progress and politically correct speakers,
They gobble up my words like they are sides at Thanksgiving.

I am not mute.

I am—
The American Man.

Change the colors of his weather,
Adorn them with soothing words,
Take down barriers and erode that border,
To give him a hope in the adults' world.