A guitar, a kiss, a river, a lighter, a flag, a country, an idea
A glorious fire, a beautiful catalyst
They told me quit playing politics
I can't hear them over the noise from the streets, from the gutters, from the shelters, from the welfare office, from the edge of ******* nowhere,
I said speak a little louder now,
I said open this **** up right now,
I said tear this ******* prison down,
I said get all these ******* cops outta here,
I said storm this ******* courthouse,
I said hold them all ******* hostage now,
I said get real now,
I said organize right now,
I said build that barricade now,
I said stop talking ******* now,
I said **** them up for real,
They descend on us angry and vicious and afraid
They strike but we strike back harder
They **** us but we get back up
They ask us to forgive but we're fresh outta redemption
They asked Jimi Hendrix to forgive centuries of racism because he could eat a guitar and they loved what he spit back up,
Jimi Hendrix told em to go to hell,
Jimi Hendrix died believing,
We'll all die believing if we're lucky
Guns out, masks up, screaming as the breath fades from the lungs
Come on, take my Earth
Take it if you dare
Take it from my cold dead hands
We've been through this, we'll go through it again
But it's getting late and we're running out of options
It's liberty or death and we all have a choice to make
It's liberty or death and Jimi Hendrix chose both
Jimi Hendrix rolled the dice and landed on eternity
Jimi Hendrix took the world on his shoulders and rode off into the wind with a guitar and a book of matches,
And I wonder,
How many fires he would've set, before he could call himself free, and believe it

There's a rip in my jeans and a hole in my wrist, there's a fire in my mouth and bottles on the table, there's a cut on my palm and blood on my shirt, there's a long way to run and a lot in my pockets, there's an alley two houses down and a bad idea around the block, there's something loud behind my ears
Let's take a ride, let'***** the corner and sing our hearts out for spare change, let's throw punches and not stick around to see if they connect, let's stuff everything in our backpacks and run out the front door, let's take up the street with our bodies angry and breathing and defiant, let's say **** the police and **** all the banks and **** all the CEOs and **** all the people who speed up when they drive past and **** everyone else especially and let's say freedom and death in the same sentence and let's pass out before either one happens, let's wake up and rub our temples and sift through the wreckage, let's take off through the back yards of our neighbors and not stop laughing till the cops stop following, let's climb the fences and scream the morning sun into the sky, let's take a line to the face and cross state lines frantic and hungry, let's tattoo our convictions and bail our friends out of jail, let's ******* and get high, let's hold each other down, let's get it together, let's pick each other off the floor, let's walk outside, and let's dismantle this day like all the others

America, you never had a chance
America, you and I both know there's only one way this ends
America, you aren't going to like it

America, what did you do to deserve the millions of revolutionaries in your streets?
America, whose bones are in the ground beneath your feet?
America, what did your father say before he left?
America, what did your sons bring home  from war?
America how holy was your birth that you can't move on?
America, who will be left behind when you do?
America, I'm too sentimental about you and I know it
America, I watched the workers hold the line for months and you locked the doors
America, I watched those people starve
America, I watched you build a cage and call it Chicago, call it Missouri, call it Baltimore, call it Dayton call it what you want and forget
America, I watched you forget
America, you forgot your angels
America, the saints want to destroy you and I don't feel sorry for you not anymore
America, I let go of you in pieces
America, I watch your flag burn to cinder and drift away
America, I watch you die every night
America, I loved you once and now I'm nothing
America, how did you repay Ginsberg's love?
America, where did you bury Eugene V Debs?
America, did you follow Abbie Hoffman to hell?
America, where are your heroes?
America, what did you do to the workers who never crossed the picket lines?
America, what did you give the black kids for Christmas?
America, what price do the immigrants pay for your freedom?
America, who do they pray to?
America, what do you pray for?
America, I pray too much for someone who doesn't believe in you
America, you never had a chance
America, I pray you get one, I owe you that much at least

I dreamed of Yuri Gagarin straddling an atomic bomb,
I dreamed of grace and annihilation weightless and atmospheric
I dreamed of gravity as the tyranny of man

I dreamed of a view of this world from the sun, ashes in a cosmic crematorium
I dreamed of ice and fire, winter and war
I dreamed of mutually assured destruction, eyes watching the sky

I dreamed of watching from on high, all glory hallelujah and twinkling giants
I dreamed of falling back down, arms spread in unbreakable faith
I dreamed of Yuri Gagarin, alone among the stars, saint of that great abyss, smiling as he met God, and asking him in a calm and reassuring tone, where he's been all this time

When great grandmother died they salted the land down south, I suppose because some burdens aren't worth carrying alone, or because they believed the harvest wouldn't taste like triumph anymore, or maybe it's just that sentiment still holds as much weight as grief in some places, either way, this is a story that begins at a funeral and ends in a grocery store


When grandfather died they gave him full honors, thanked him for his service in the rain, as if this place is any cleaner for all that pain, as if the war hadn't carved the heart from his chest and left broken bottles in its place, I think about how ceremony can make men out of monsters and back again, on the drive home I wonder what they'll say about me

When the angel of death appeared to me,
He said,
"If you're willing to believe this isn't the end,
We shall have no more to discuss tonight"
I closed my eyes then,
I've been feeling around in the dark ever since,
Afraid of what comes next

The cold welcomes you home,
Like eviction notices and ghosts in the attic,
Something is crying all night long
Something is turning this place hollow
Something nobody wants to admit is here
The valley is buried and the Shepards **** the flock one by one to spare them the pain of transition,
No act of mercy goes unpunished,
In every act of mercy there is a promise,
For Jeremiah, the doom of Jerusalem carried with it a promise of cleansing, so he opened his mouth and raised his arms to the sky and let the word travel through him, but when he had had enough, he shut his mouth and locked the prophesy inside his chest where it burned his heart so viciously he weeps still to this day in his tomb
For Alexander, the sword held a promise of unity, so the old king rode among his men as a lion with pride, resplendent in gold and the light of divine purpose, but when the light went out, those cruel gods sank their teeth into the kings stomach and cursed him to fade forever into marble and history
For the Bolsheviks, the rifle and the pamphlet bore promise of utopia, so they armed the masses to the teeth and let hell claim the tsar, but when the long winter came, they stared down the barrel of their own guns and wondered, what good can come of this world after all?
For me, the snow brings with it a promise of remembrance, so I dig in, light a fire, and let it consume me slowly, as it has always done

The poem is either a confession or a rifle
It remains deadly regardless

The disorder, the struggle, the heartbreak; the criminal record, the tears, the drugs, the breakdown, the music, the suicide attempt, the riot, the midnight, the fire, the comedown and the uprising

The girl you spent nights awake over, writing poems you knew could never live up, who you were always afraid would ran like hell and never looked back if she ever saw through you,
The night you got arrested, trying to spray paint a manifesto on a red brick wall because you didn't know how else to make them hear you, and you couldn't wipe your own tears through the handcuffs so you had to let your face tell everyone that you weren't as brave as you thought you were,
The boy who died just months after his 18th birthday, who never wanted anything more than to disappear and finally got his wish except in your flashes of memory and dreams of a different life,
The day you first stood in the street with your fists clenched tight around a sign you held high as God and twice as loud, and you felt ignited for the first time in your life like you could burn up everything that held the world down with a Bic lighter and unshakable conviction

So this is where you find me,
Somewhere between the personal and the political,
From the needle in the groove to the back of the squad car
From the drunken night to the show of solidarity
From the "I can't go on anymore" to the "A luta continua"
From the relapse to the rise,
You'll find me in the poem, and I'll be fighting either way