….and what if
he hadn’t been on the clock
what if
potus’s pity
had droned on by
targeting other
innocent bystanders instead
what if
he had tweeted
about potus’s
terroristic
threats
and what if
the dread
of being treated
as brown dregs
had been his poetic
show-n-tell
what if
he had scientifically
documented
the cries
of the hundreds of ahmeds
and the thousands of muhammeds
– all dead
because the clock
exploded on their heads
time bombing their
scientific futures
into an oblivious
past
because they too
were in
the wrong place
and the wrong skin
and the wrong country
and the wrong science class
would
you have invited
them too
to
the white’s house?
and yet…..

….so you tell
me constantly
that sex
cannot
work
andthat
sex work
reworks sex
and
sexualizes work
andthat
sex work
belabors labour
and laboritizes
labia
andthat
sex
cannot be granted
a work permit
or a visa
or a green card
or citizenship
andthat
work
cannot be granted
an orgasm
andthat
sex should
be
about choice
andthat
work should
be
about usefulness
andthat
sex and work
and choice and use
cannot
just
cannot
be bed partners
and all i can think
is that i love you
so ima
just think it
and not say it
but what i really
really
want to say
is
exactly!
THIS
is why sex
always works
and that work
is always
about sex
and that
sexwork
flips the
missionary’s
position
around constantly
and therefore
THIS
is why
i
am a sexworker
and yet…..

…..and so this is
the new calculus
of power
cast every privilege
into a caste barrier
and fight to capture
the bottom
while standing on
the necks
of those who have
always been there
multiply every
perceived slight
and divide
divide
divide
by zero
until you
return the new
conquering hero
add
only when the sum
is less than the parts
but always more
than what you had
and subtract
everything that
is or
always has been
theirs
differentiate
constantly
because numbers
are exponentially
less dangerous
when
they become
mere products
and integrate
as long
as you get
to set
the limiting
boundaries
this…
this is a math
they teach
well
even to those
who couldnt
get into the
science stream
and yet……

http://time.com/4011001/hardik-patel-protest-arrest-gujarat-obc/

….this city!
mocking
horizons still
with 90 degree
neck snapping
erections
jackhammering
concrete
into sky high
steel jizz
even as glass
foreskins
brownstone
peeling
over history
and people
and memories
and grit
and lovers
and their
tears
and yet….

.

….these are
the dog days
of august
words
puffed out
in half-formed
thought balloons
blown away
by current events
dreary poetics
and
tired politics
seeping
into
hungry sands
that rearrange themselves
with shifting queries
of so whats
and
what ifs
and
whodafuckcares
thank the lord
for
imagined adoration
and
anonymous adulation
on faces
and
books
and
on facebooks
and yet…

…..it’s bland
now isnt it
when another sandra
lies dead
in those prison
slaughter sheds
a shudder
a murmur
and we gear up
for the next factory line
murder
so this is my
coitus interrupter
for the next horror
for the next
made-to-order
newspaper headliner
making the dead
even deader
im done
trying to prove
that our lives matter
im done
with a nation
establishing terror
by scapegoating
the muslim other
im done
trying to wonder
how much louder
and sadder
we’d have been
if yakub
had been jacob
or jake
or cecil
im done
with rhyming this shit
im done
totally.
done.
and yet…..

…….before
you csi my blood
and separate
me from me
before
you dna that shit
on doa
and
test it
for hiv and hcv and hpv
before
you categorize and compartmentalize
and sanitize and euthanize and cauterize
before
you determin-ize
that 1/8th is black
and 1/4th dalit
and 1/16th illegal
and 1/30th criminal
before you do all that
can i
at least slice
skin open
and spray
your white
with red?
and yet…….

….these are indeed
days of silence
quiet questions
fending off
answers
like beethoven
pleading
the fifth
navigating
through inner ear
oceans
to hear
cords
just beyond
the audible
dropping
hammer
on anvil
in stirrup
to limbo
under notes
that go
so so low
just before
crashing
out of
hearing
yes yes!
these
silent
violent
queries
are just
so much
prep
I wait
for the climaxing
ode
in the 9th
and yet….

…..it isn’t just that
you value each fuck
enough
to evaluate
how high you
can climb on that
fuckery ladder
or even that
when fucking
graduates
to institutional
tax evasion
you will only ring
a finger
that points to
the next level
of social
acceptance
no – it isn’t even
that your families
will turn that
screw in
so tight that
screwing
becomes a
necessary pathway
to the next generation
of privileged reproduction
and while
it could be
it isn’t even that
eventually
you come to me
and in me
and
tell me
that ecstasy
can only be found
now
in non-corporate
corporeality
and holdonholdonholdon
i know that you think
it is
but it really isn’t even
that look of
surprised
hurt
when i demand
that you put
your money
where your cock is
nor your
angered
ejaculation
spat out
in a hiss
“you fucking whore”
no – what it really
is, if you must know
is that
you’d actually
think
that those three words
would
vilify me
and yet…..