2 Minutes. Go!

Language is magic. Every sentence spoken is a spell; every speaker, a magician. Those of us who are fortunate remember when words were free! When we could wrap them around our bodies for safety. Words were invitations, not curses. 

Not then.

The ones with the blank eyes communicate with points and grunts. They get by, but there is no art to it. No feeling. They are shadows.

The ones who live underground are terrifying. They scuttle between alleys and they scrabble for scraps with torn, bleeding nail-beds. 

The “statues” are already dead. They sway to the blues coursing through their bloodstreams. They are human apparitions. You stop seeing them eventually, but at first they can be very unsettling. 

Please know, the ones who live under the streets are not the rich who live in bunkers. They still wear white linen and gold. Underground is paradise for them. I am speaking of the ones who live with the rats, not the ones who engineered the disaster. 

I am the one who remembers the words. They mean nothing, but they calm me. I say them under my breath while I separate skin from bone. 

2 Minutes. Go!

Hey MAGA, it's been a few months now. Not to count the years. Was it worth it? Did you get what you wanted? Does the country look like you want it to look, yet? It's different, that's for sure. There's a lot I can't wrap my mind around, but I will tell you what I SEE.

I see gas prices up. Food prices up. Services slashed. Safeguards obliterated. And that's the easy part.

I see people terrified. I see people losing hope. I see true patriots turning away from the ugliness. I see an ideal dying on the vine, and I blame all of them...the republicans, the democrats, the idiots who think they don't have to get involved. The morons who think politicians are supposed to be their super-buddies or mentors.

I saw two citizens shot dead in the streets. I saw people beaten and stolen and swept under the rug. I see migrants dying because they have been identified as something less than human, when, clearly, they are just as human as my ancestors who just happened to emigrate from a lighter-skinned place. 

I see a bunch of people willing to apologize for pedophile rapists.

I see the world turning away from us. 

I see Iranian propaganda that makes a whole lot of sense. 

I have watched journalism - something I once revered - be turned into state messaging and apologist excuses. Gotta sell that ad time, right? Gotta look out for your shareholders!

I thought we were looking out for each other in REAL ways. I thought we didn't want our neighbors targeted and harassed. I thought we wanted the American Experiment to mean something. I thought we wanted the world's "downtrodden" - I thought we were heroic like that. 

I see now that we are small and misinformed. I see that corruption sinks everything given time. I see that there are far more people than I thought who care only about themselves. 

I thought we had made some progress with the systemic racism. I didn't know it was a feature a bunch of y'all missed and mourned. 

I thought we wanted to be free...like y'all in Texas who are so free you can't smoke smoke a naturally -growing plant or get an abortion. 

I see that money is really the root of all evil, and it is killing us.

I see hypocrisy. Everywhere. 

And I hate it.