A City is Occupied
The border is everywhere. It’s crossed us again.
A city is occupied
on American soil.
The army is wolfish,
unwavering, loyal.
There’s plenty of freedom
(though no pretense of oil)
when a city is occupied
on American soil.
Your home can’t be trusted.
The enemy’s within.
The foundations have cracked,
the walls have worn thin.
Safety is earned.
Let the soldiers in.
Your home can’t be trusted.
The enemy’s within.
Some children are evil;
they deserve to be stolen.
Their origins tell us
what your eyes cannot know.
Don’t let the blue bunny hat
sway your emotion.
That child is evil.
He deserved to be stolen.
The trees are exploding;
the cold freezes their sap.
A spiteful snow
has buried our map.
The north star is hiding.
The woods are a trap.
Now the trees are exploding,
and we’ve frozen like sap.
The wind’s changed direction
and the bombs are returning.
The patterns of war
are twisting and curling.
Boomerangs panic,
oceans start burning
when the wind changes direction,
when bombs start returning.
The border is everywhere.
It’s crossed us again.
Soon it will swallow us,
though no telling when.
Whose kids will be caged
when this mission ends?
For the border is everywhere.
It will cross us again.
A poet’s been murdered.
A caregiver too.
The nurses are arming
themselves. Wouldn’t you?
Some say guns are dangerous,
let the troops do what they do.
But a poet’s been murdered,
and a caregiver too.
History won’t abide
what others leave undone.
Tanks need drivers.
Assassins need guns.
The dead don’t stay buried.
Old words find new tongues.
And history won’t abide
what others leave undone.
The border is everywhere.
It’s crossed us again.
It’s kidnapped our families,
bound our friends.
No roads will move
‘til this deep freeze ends.
And if the border is everywhere,
we’ll cross it again.
When timelines are scrambled,
possibility unlocks.
When maps rearrange themselves,
separation walls drop.
Fetters dissolve –
shackles and clock –
when timelines are scrambled,
when possibility unlocks.
A city is occupied
on American soil.
Now streets can snap back,
events can recoil.
This winter is hot.
What’s frozen will boil
when a city is occupied
on any nation’s soil.
Header image is an official city map of Minneapolis and St. Paul (1923).
Worms of the Senses
(what I’m seeing, hearing, and reading…)
Seeing
Session 9, directed by Brad Anderson, screenplay by Anderson and Stephen Gevedon (2001)
Blood Simple, directed by Joel Coen, screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen (1984)
Meshes of the Afternoon, directed by Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied, screenplay by Deren (1943)
Hearing
Winged Wheel, Desert So Green (2026)
The Unthanks, Sorrows Away (2022)
Tim Hecker, Ravedeath, 1972 (2011)
Reading
Savage Messiah, by Laura Grace Ford (2019)
The Dream Life of Balso Snell, by Nathanael West (1931)
Aesthetics and Politics, by Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, György Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht (2018)