Vote for Me!

Hi there.

We all cope in different ways. The news of last week’s election brought on a lot of emotional activation in most people within my circles. Suddenly it felt a lot harder to feel safe, for people who already have a difficult time feeling safe, and take on a lot of responsibility and work trying to do so. Unfortunately, this felt familiar. I wanted to reach out and provide what support I could, and these emotions did move given the space and attention, but ultimately, mostly, it felt like cold comfort in the face of a raging fire.

One of my strongest impulses was to write. But what? In the grand scheme of things, any art that fosters connection and understanding can serve as a force for peace. But when war is raging and killing hundreds of people around the world each day, there’s a collective duty all expressive artists can feel to address the violence, to shine our light in the directions that most need healing to reduce active harms.

One of the ways I do this is through satire. The machinations of the systems that pit our nations against each other and keep us reenacting hollow patterns as people and environments literally blow up around us are, fundamentally, absurd. They use the language of advertising to manipulate our perceptions into mentally supporting and accepting tribal rivalries and vengeful actions that make no sense on the heart level, that only create a less safe world for all.

I wrote this poem this morning to expose this bleak absurdity and violence baked into the arguments that keep us…