it took
two and a half
years to free
the last slaves
on juneteenth
ignoring the
century between
civil war and
civil rights
and the sixty
some years since
which have shown
no matter how far
we pretend to move
as a species
certain unalienable
rights remain
conditional.

the illusionary
unity shattered
the moment the
orange bigot normalized
making america hate again
when the weak cowards
so threatened by
a well spoken
black president
were allowed to vent
one hundred and sixty
some odd years of
pent up intolerance
no longer held back
with the thinnest
pretense of politics
an entire nation
sickened by decades
of police violence
sat stunned as the
cycle renewed with
only the shade of
brown being adjusted.

the grand delusion
the lie we swallow
so eagerly as we proclaim
how truly first world
of a country we are
ignoring the homeless
the opioid epidemic
the stigma on mental illness
starving children and
how we abuse our veterans
not to mention small issues
such as women’s reproductive
rights and the villification
of the lgbtqia community
was that they magnanimously
freed the slaves with the
emancipation proclamation.

they just found new ways
to indenture us all
and gave us a day off
so we can be good little
consumers and keep this
evil machine with zero
empathy consuming souls
dangling divisiveness to
keep the masses always at
one another’s throats while
they steal our futures
one shift at a time