Public feathers, rooster blood

I saw rainbow blood on a piece of burnt bark. Some red splattered on the dog, and stuck there like she had crushed the bird in her jaw. But in fact, she cried when she saw it.

Next project

I think the title of my next project is going to be "Infiltration Nation." It's not going to be a piece of creative writing, however, but an aural art exhibit or a short documentary in the short term.

In the long-term it will be research for a "novel," where of course one of my characters is either a lawyer or an "artist" and one of the things he wants to do is ahum ... a detention center.

Well, this is his chance to either do it or at least work with others to help them do it, so why the hell not take the opportunity?

I was thinking the other day about those WWJD bracelets, and of course being in a so-called "Christian Nation," you have to ask what would Jesus do about those detention centers if he were alive today and indeed the son of God?

I believe that he would infiltrate those detention centers in order to be there with you and help you tend to those wounds.

Not that we have to get a whole messiah complex about it but we really do have to wonder, what would you do if someone you loved was locked up in one of those places for some random infraction and not just "crossing the border"?

Perhaps the thing to do is expand this notion of who is worthy of our love and our efforts.

Maybe that is "what Jesus would do." 

Another split brewing?

It seems like the immigrant rights movement is about to split yet again (and I don't bemoan this--it may be necessary), between those who will choose and attempt to go as artists into the mainstream of things, and those who, having no mainstreamable talent to exploit, will continue to labor on in not only poverty like the artists (except for the rare few that will become "profitable" at it) but also in relative obscurity, unless our mainstream media ever does a better job of covering and becoming interested in them. May these activists find the people and groups who will continue to nurture them despite this and regardless of what happens with mainstream media practices, may we continue to find the wisdom to nurture both our artists and activists without forcing them to be exactly the same thing.

Speak the wound

The poet can speak the wound. The poet is wounded just like the rest of us. He or she is just not wounded into speechlessness. - Hoagland

Art what good are you to me?

The stick by which you measure

Will be used to measure you instead.

I wonder how many citizens would lose their citizenship if we were to apply the basic DACA requirements to them.

I mean, unless you were naturalized, you didn't do anything to deserve your citizenship, so it's not a huge stretch to ask the question. How "good" of a citizen have you been?

You risked your life for this country? Okay, but do you have a DUI tambien? No matter. Vas pa fuera de todos modos.

That was a long time ago? You've changed?

No matter, we don't believe in second chances in this country, not anymore, not in this economy.

I'm just saying, the stick by which you measure, should be used to measure you instead.

Breathe right...

Now how come we can't rile people up to work with this kid? Does he look too black, too ghetto, too gang life? All I wanna know is does he know how to breathe right? Does his heart know how to beat right, does it bleed right? Or maybe it doesn't. Might he die with "one thousand masterpieces hanging only from his mind," or maybe just one, two, or three. Or fuck that shit, maybe it will just be a few good memories, a few small dreams, a pair of low-rider rims. That's all I need to care about him. That's all I need to fight for him. Let's stop cleaning up our ghetto kids. Let's start loving them instead.

Por eso cuando yo vuelo

"No vuelo en una paloma si no en un buho." - Tayamu Denku

Y cuando lloro no lloro muy de noche.

Y cuando toco el suelo no se me inchan los pies si no los ojos.