I have had a lot of pent up anger. Say “Amen” if “you too”–but finally I was able to let it out with a poem, this poem. However, I have yet to be able to revise it. Revision may not be able to make it better, or maybe revision will discover the truth, the real truth I haven’t yet been able to articulate. Maybe I will be able to “show and not tell” but sometimes is that really necessary?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like to live in a country that hates you?<\/p>\n
It feels like anger, it feels like fear
\nIt feels like a joke, it has to be a joke.
\nIt feels surreal. Not fantasy, nightmare.
\nName the aggressions, the aggressors.
\nAggression a weak word. Name the
\nKillers of love, of hope, of faith. The
\nOligarchs. The kings, the bad guys
\n(and women) (most of them)
\narent the color black.
\nThe movies had it all wrong. Black or
\nWhite, black and white. There is a
\nRainbow and the pot of gold at the
\nEnd does not belong to MAGA fans.
\nThe wind blows in a different direction.
\nDemocrats and progressives, liberals
\nOf all fighting minds know America
\nHas never been great, and never will
\nBe for the working class, the poor. I say
\nMake America Great, period. I say find
\nA slogan that is doable. I say feed the
\nChildren , educate the children, I say
\nYes to the browning of America, to
\nAll the colors all the genders. I say We
\nAre tired but not weak. I say protest
\nMy friends and we don\u2019t have to love
\nOur MAGA neighbors we have to be
\nAware of them, of their hate, of
\nTheir destructive actions. It\u2019s not
\nJust the billionaires, it\u2019s those
\nWho don\u2019t like Black, Indigenous,
\nAsian, Chicano\/Chicana who
\nThink their whiteness gives them
\nPermission to bully, to kill, to
\nDisappear us, despite their own
\nPoverty their own misery. I say
\nHave my back, not my blood. I
\nSay I will not forgive you Trump
\nAnd your family and your cronies
\nNot today, not tomorrow. I say
\nLock them up and keep them there,
\nI say disappear the bad bad people.
\nI say I\u2019m happy I can finally write
\nA poem about what I\u2019ve been
\nFeeling these first 100 days plus
\nAnd I can breathe again, at least
\nFor the few minutes it is taking
\nTo write this poem. I say, yes,
\nI am afraid, but I say fear keeps
\nMe awake, keeps me aware, keeps
\nMe thinking, yes, open Alcatraz
\nAnd deport all the fascists to reside there,
\nMaybe even build them a golf course.<\/p>\n
Sherry Quan Lee
\nSunday, May 11, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have had a lot of pent up anger. Say “Amen” if “you too”–but finally I was able to let it out with a poem, this poem. However, I have yet to be able to revise it. Revision may not be able to make it better, or maybe revision will …<\/p>\n