the way it
can be discussed calmlycan be used as an example
and your options of course
are to be better or worse than the
people who commit the
atrocitiesyour name is irrelevant until
it gets mentioned on
the evening newsthis is america i've been told
the knife at the throat and
the middle finger
extended towards heaventhe smell of gasoline and the
taste of it
and the blur of neon off the
naked flesh of
your teenage daughtersthe money to be made there
bright lights in
windowless rooms and then the
act of forgetting who
you werethe way you learn to pretend
that you're happyto smile on your hands and knees
and beg for more which is
one way of defining religionwhich is another way of
discussing politics while the child
grows up without memories
of the act but with scars
