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.

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