July 4, 2024
Soda in a plastic cup,
fried chicken on a Styrofoam plate,
the scent of heavy metals
pours from exhaust pipes:
the economy will always be more important
than the air we breathe,
another house going up
in a long row of houses.
America, my body is your body
gutted and stuffed with cash.
It’s hot enough to wilt every flag and still
the parade goes on.
No doesn’t ever mean no
when there’s profit on the line,
the temperature a hundred
degrees and counting
and no alternative facts
will stop the sea levels rising.
America, it’s only intermission
and we already know how this will end.
