Ask if your country is addicted to forgetting
this land is not America
it is stolen
from people who are still alive
and fighting.
Ask if you country is addicted to forgetting
rivers are living things
we are living things
we are not weapons or numbers or usernames
we are animals
and animals need clean water.
Ask if your country is addicted to forgetting
we are people
and people need some kind of sacred to survive
empire
but the God who’s on our money
is inconsistent in his miracles
and his angels are white.
This earth is brown.
This earth is red.
It does not need those angels.
It needs water protectors
prayers and poets.
It needs rebels and teachers and children
who need trees and rivers and birds
that are not covered in oil,
birds who are not cartoons or decorations,
birds who are made of bones and blood and songs
like us –
We need songs.
We need unflinching music in these unrelenting times.
Beauty will help us stay alive.
We need that winged thing called truth.
We need to stop forgetting
that we need each other
the way we need water
the way we need something sacred
to survive
like justice
and home.
