United States of Ash

1692

Salem, Massachusetts ties women

to charring stakes.

1812

the British burn DC down

the white house becomes ash

1864

General Sherman

sacrifices Atlanta to flames

2015

Ferguson

New York

Baltimore

combust under the pressure of systematic opression
this is more than a witch hunt

when you feed mountains gunfire

they become volcanoes

you can call them riots

but don't pretend you didn't feed the eruptions

froze beneath the pumice

as we re-colonize Pompeii

when I was five

my house burned down

I came home to a bedroom of dust

learned to run from burning

fire isn’t menacing

When it was never home
When flesh isn't a body just a moving target When a body is never a citizen never a person its easy to drown voices in tear gas without guilt.

and you're hoping
a girl who looks like me
doesn't speak up
because I'm not the one burning

WE ARE ALL BURNING

you say protesters are unpatriotic

you forget

we celebrate independence

shooting infernos into sky

hot dogs in one hand

sparklers in the other

you forget

nothing’s more American

than charring cities
United States of Ash

you forget

we started with a war.