Messes

a purge

My neighborhood
is the physical manifestation
Of all the messes
My society refuses to clean up

A soggy pile of Colonization lies crumpled in the street
intertwined with long, fraying strands of Sexism

Broken fragments of the War on Drugs
speckle the pavement,
mixed in with pebbles of pothole shrapnel and faded
crosswalk lines

The white tech bros and yoga pant Karens who infest this
historically Black, working class neighborhood
leave their garbage in boxes on the street
as an offering
to the poor
An attempt to buy absolution from the divine
or our ancestors
who haunt these wild, dirty streets

Not a soul wants these broken vacuum cleaners
ironic button up shirts, size small
or scratched Jumangi DVDs

but these gifts are the burden of the streets now
Their owners have signed away
their parental rights
and washed their hands
in the outpouring of self-satisfaction.

Each time it rains
the false offerings drown in their cardboard coffins
It rains again, and again
Life’s attempt, I suspect,
to cleanse our streets
of lies

Now, these soggy boxes of shame
melt into the streets to spill their guts
The t-shirts crust over into strange forms
that confuse cars,
who slow down out of concern
for the piles in the road

It is not wrong
to take back the offering
no one asked you for
It is honorable
to clean up your messes

Do not double down
on the myth of “gift”
The sound bite of “charity”
The origin story of “liberator”
The lies are too messy
and our streets have mess enough, already

Clean
Now
While it is merely rain that comes to assist you
For when the mess reaches a level
that calls forth flood
we will all be in peril

Pick up your
crusty condom
and your ripped 3-Strikes Law

Haul away your
wobbly coat rack
and your rusty Mandatory Minimums

Clean up Oscar Grant
and Jessica Alva
and Vincent Chin
and Cherry Bush

Your hands are not clean
They are wet
with your own
self-congratulatory
ejaculations

Clean
Now
The
Flood
Is
Coming

and your garbage
will not be life raft enough
to save you

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Photo credits

Paco S on Unsplash

Tara Evans on Unsplash

Jamison Riley on Unsplash