Regie Cabico
For My Barkada In A Burning World
after Jayne Cortez
They don't care
if you're a naturist
a liberal Lego a MAGAt
an abolitionist
or a right-winged boomerang
They will exploit you
like a Disney child star
suck you like a mosquito
herd you
cancel you deport you
or unalive you and your pastor with plastic bullets
They will fire you and rehire you
fire you on the stake and rehire you
fire-rehire you
in a revolving door
with a revolver on your temple
And you will fall
into the cliff of your own wrath
into your own miasma
into your own rationale
into your own Instagram post
into a Labubu,
a Saturday Night Live sketch,
all you'll be
is an expired CVS coupon
and then soot
The ruling majority
will tell you
They embrace democracy
as they organize their constituents
supremacist lynchings
organize their children
into Charlie KKKirk
tiki torch anti-Semitic rhetoric
wrangle their police into
atormtrooper stomping militia
organize their tall tales
to ossify us with Oreo opioids
appropriate our ube like Trader Joes
uninoculate us with apathetic needles
institutionalize us with Hollywood
fake blood assassinations
hypnotize us with bombing Venezuelan boats
and stomp moral decency away
we are programmed to fragment
and self destruct
The secret Scruffers
polishing their shafts
between oil wells and nuclear warheads
the gentrifying cranes
leaping into deportation dances
the elderly dying of neglect
the heartbeat of the earth
dead in the greedy orifice of imperialism
And my barkada
they don't care
If you're a left-wing boomerang
a rightist dingbat
or a moderate tarantula
They will spray you
With small pox
fill your nostrils
with their arrogance
pump all
the indige
nous resources
into their cavities
fly off into the wild blue yonder
singing the Smurf LA LA LA song
Call it Manifest Destiny
to pollute other planets
if we don't practice karate
if we don't play tug of war
if we don't strategize
and see this administration
as pawn pieces
Then we will sport
The Aunt Gladys look of captivity
The stylised zombie look post-election fraud
The bizarre look of civil war
The dehumanized look of censorship
We will all be writing about dirt
in a Christian way
in a thoughts and prayers way
in a your-English-is-really-good-way
in a Quaker Oats wholesome way
in a Metamusil way
in a formaldehyde gloss of repression
forever and ever and there you have it
My Barkada, my dear buddy, my friend.
Regie Cabico is the author of A Rabbit In Search of a Rolex (Day Eight, 2023) and is the executive director for A Gathering of the Tribes.