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Thank you to Cassandra Tribe (yet again) for all her help and guidance with this piece  :)


(We Are) More Than This

Too many poems start with a definition
We all know what the fuck malpractice is
No matter the truth of the situation though
I can’t go into details due to ‘pending litigation’
Because we all know that the truth
ain’t the truth until a f’k’n judge says so

This is what we’ve become

The ghosts of our ancestors do not approve,
We have nothing to be proud of.
No reason to separate a shoulder patting ourselves on the back
As our egos marvel blindly at our ingenious catastrophe
The glory of each sunrise, each birth becomes a miracle squandered
Lost in the pursuit of a richer payday, a faster ride,
a better piece of ass,
a friendlier reality

We are more than this

Scrambling to climb ladders of success
We ignore the ladder of evolution because it’s too tall
The climb too difficult for these legs already tired
from the effort of our performance in this darkness
holding our faces up to it as if it were the warm glow of heaven
choking on the ignorance we shove down our throats
as if it could sustain us

We are more than this

Despite what we were led to believe
We are not merely drunken nights spaced out
by work’s immeasurable appetite for chain-gang repetition
Breaking our souls instead of rocks
(We are) not merely a stranger’s steamy groin and groping hands in the dark
Reaching for a salvation that will never come in this way
Please do not try to sell your rationalizations
and justifications to this simple soul,
I cannot lie to you and tell you it is ok

because we are more than this

Despite the best efforts of tyrants and zealots
We are not jailed journalists, propaganda or lost souls
Those seeking earthly power are blind to what it really is,
Too busy shouting their greatness
from mountaintops of their own creation,
incapable of listening
We are not ‘ethnic cleansing’ or machetes bloodied in the name of any god
(We are) not burning crosses and white robes
or the flesh of Stella Byrd’s boy James being scraped away,
his screams echoing in a forest of swinging bodies
Noose to noose
Shackle to shackle
Amen

We are more than this

Despite what it says on the asses of sweatpants
We are not sluts, baby mamas, bitches or ho’s
Mothers are the embodiment of love
We are not merely gold teeth, tinted windows or bling
Lost in the pursuit of fallacy
Cruising streets drenched in the blood of children
and calling it territory
We are not the puppets of puppets of puppets
Perpetuating our own demise
(We are) not pawns, experiment subjects or ‘collateral damage’
We are not ‘negative outcomes’ or ‘economic downturns’
It is not for you that our bodies bleed
It is not for you that our warriors die
They die for us
For the promise that we will let go of these shackles, that

we will be more than this

Because our truth can never be silenced or ignored
Our hope cannot be reasoned away or dismissed
It does not come from within ourselves
It comes from our children
And they are
More than this,
They are so much more than this

I am incapable of pretending that they are not



© 2009 Michael Egidio Quigg