After Ferguson, After Pulse, After Gaza, After Texas, After Everywhere, After the Election & Before

 

I want people to love people the way dogs love people.

Wholeheartedly. Without expectation.

An intrinsic desire. You sit by me and I will sit by you.

My mother owns four dogs.

And I babysat them for a few days.

It was exquisite.

The dawn did not break me.

It is a kind of giving you cannot forget about.

Side by side,

We ate together.

We slept together.

We bask in the warmth together. We bask in the cold night together.

We do not ask to love we just do. We speak a language without the

talking. We laugh the good cry. No salt spills from eye. No sea of

sweat. No rivers of blood. No land mines. No broken glass. No slow

hollows. No howling out at the bad moon rising. Everything just risen.

Fish peak above currents and we see scales glowing. We see a

reflection of promise, of life.

Our Country is hard phrase to spill from my mouth.

I do not own shit. I wasn’t made here. We live in a world where we do

not even own our own bodies. Where the salt water line keeps

creeping upstream. Where bodies are governed by borders and people

did not cross them. The borders cross people. The borders broke bread

in half. The borders split the sky and the clouds.The borders sank the

rain heavy. The borders are beyond the division. This poem was never

about soil or blood. This poem was about a lack of love for people. For

anyone but ourselves. Our country has always been a drought. Has

always been thirsty. Craves flesh the wrong way.

I never understood hunting. We have all been birthed from the hunted.

Our ears keep ringing. Dogs keep barking and I do not blame them. I

too would cry if I did not understand what was coming for me. And

the guns keep singing. The firearms keep burning. Are always hot.

They say the desert is quiet but we all know what heat sounds like

after ________

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River Mason is a queer Latinx poet. They are a recent graduate from Temple University, receiving a BA in Film and Media Arts. River was a Philly Pigeon Slam finalist. They are Babel Poetry Collective alum. Their poetry has been featured on SlamFind. They were a cast member of The Philly Pigeon’s multimedia production show ‘Vanishing Point’ were their photography and poetry was featured. Much of River’s time consists on shedding light on others. They capture, film and photograph poets in the Philadelphia area. They are a wallflower, taco lover, dog enthusiast, and past soda addict.