For people I know from Texas
retired from work
children are hard working adults
living with grandchildren in another state
chose not to move from hometown
visit nephews and nieces
don’t talk politics with siblings
go along get along over and over
not ready for a future when
a niece is impregnated by rape
for now, homey Facebook posts
with friends from college
and comments ending with lol
Assembling a portion of an earlier poem with a recently written one about Texas’s horrible anti-abortion legislation. Aware that the state I grew up in has a very imperfect history, but I never expected this kind of demagoguery.
busybodies now busy policing women’s bodies
when they’re not celebrating shooting without a license
>
pendulum swing could be foretold in 1982
when middle of the road Governor Mark White
had the absolute nerve to enact No Pass, No Play
intended to make high school athletes get passing grades
before they could play the Holy Game of Football on Fridays
there was a rebellion and a stunted notion of freedom even then
and Mark White was defeated for re-election
>
the sidewinder snake with an appetite for Lone Star Beer
and a SECEDE bumper sticker on the back of his pickup
became hungry to enforce simple values on everyone
and, later, simpleton governors like GWB and Rick Perry
plus Greg Abbott acting the role of fiddle-playing Covid patient
had no trouble offering laws and protections for the snake to excrete
>
kids get sick, teachers die, a school closes
but that doesn’t matter to the angry freedom bludgeoning people
making it harder to vote, impossible to think for yourself
>
this is what you get when you wrap bloody meat selfishness
inside the tamale husk of performative righteousness
allegedly in Jesus’ name
