This is what we see
1/7/26
This is what we see
Headlines and news posts
Emails and words on TV
Our friends speaking up, saying it’s all fucked up
Whispers on the street
Since when did reality become so twisted?
When the words of those in power are suddenly more powerful than the truth
That shit can be said, twice as more articles read
Yet they still sit on their thrones smiling— with one hell of a rooted tooth
The ground is coming up from under our very two feet
Many of us will not make it, many of us are the source
Of extinguishing that only knows color and background
Our dialect and beaten up shoes only making it worse
Their eyes bleed red
Our hearts burn in the same tone
Angry from the hatred, angry from the games
Angry from the way we’re forced to bow down to those monsters on the throne
Power comes from coming together,
Binding under a desire and helpless hope to make things right
But what happens when the crowds are growing cold and weary
What happens when we’re tired from sleepless nights?
Trailing backwards in the paths we once only recognized as onward
Downhill never felt so exhausting and hard
Death and deportation and decimation— denial
Words tangling with each other until our sentences come apart
We all deserve better
We deserve the dream that never existed outside of the imagination
The one of opportunity and equality
Where we’re always able to arrive at the same stations
But today I looked at my phone— and saw a murder of an innocent civilian
The killer’s blood running ICE cold
A press conference rinsing hands of the damage
A story so disgusting and flawed, yet, a story that managed to be told
And so we repost it, give it a like
Let people know we are educated and aware
Our engagement is bordered there, between acknowledgement and mourning
I know we all care
But we don’t see what happens after, do we?
We don’t feel the nausea kick in as we look at her empty driveway
We aren’t neighbors that will miss the way she greeted us each morning
Their worlds upside down, her’s gone, our’s sideways
As we stare into our little box of a screen
Windows into every version of reality and fantasies alike
Where we shed a tear or two, wondering how such things could happen
Chasing our tails until we find a way to make it right
There’s bite marks on every neck
I swear we are destined to run out of time
Swimming in a pool of our blood that continues to pump through raised fists
Even amidst our drowning cries
And so this is what we will do
We’ll read the news, we’ll read the lies
We’ll scream for those who have lost their voice entirely
Looking at the monsters’ twisted smiles with tears in our eyes
Headlines and videos will swarm our feeds
And we’ll be careful about what we believe
We’ll face the facts, the news intact
In hopes of creating a future of relief
Hope— what a passive term
And yet in a time like right now, it feels like so much more
When all is caged and controlled
Hope appears as the only open door
So let’s hope
And not in a rainbow and sunshine type of way
Let’s hope for tomorrow and the open doors
Let’s hope for blue skies beyond the rain
Let’s come together broken and bruised
Our wounds a painful sight
Scabbed with knowledge and healed with effort
Let’s continue to fight
And never stop
Until we’ve restored justice as our right
