In a Hostile United States
…he stops in front of you,
extends his hand and says,
“Satch Paige is my name.”
I have memories of the apartheid signs on all the restaurants and public facilities. A white person who grew up in the area at that time recently corrected me: “Those weren’t apartheid signs, those were Jim Crow signs.”
She might have clung to her freedom
to live among leaves a while longer,
in paradise not quite lost.
Members of the American Indian Movement and the Many Shields Warrior Society are patrolling the streets of Minneapolis.
The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it—at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.
No one can walk here,
save shy deer, save wind and rain,
save those invisible wings
that can gently lift the whole garden
up to the constellations.
Universities in 2025 proved that the federal government can indeed blackmail academic institutions by withholding federal funds and forcing schools not only to give money to the government but also fundamentally alter the way their campuses operate.
the stars barely visible above the oil rigs off the coast,
aglow like phantom ships
‘All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.’
and started to dance without music
slowly we danced around and around
in circles and after a while we hummed
when the world was about to end
Trapped in the never-ending horror of solitary confinement, three prisoners in the United States seek comfort and escape in the boundless landscapes of their own imaginations.
The tattoo place was in the strip mall
Between the pizza shop and the liquor store,
Where all during Covid he bought
His tequila because the owner played
Old blues on the stereo and kept his distance
The internet has not democratized news in any meaningful way; instead, the media monopoly has simply migrated to digital spaces.
Over the dark mountain, over the dark pinewood,
Down the long dark valley along the shrunken river,
Returns the splendor without rays, the shining of shadow