….they told me its a new kinda prison
a kinder prison they said
infact not even a prison they reasoned
a community treatment center really
motivational and inspirational and rehabilitative
and somanyother
multisyllabically empowered palliatives
that i thought youd end up
being my socialworker
when i reached you
finally
through thesame steel doors
and thesame bodysearches
and thesame spotless corridors
mopped clean of all human debris
but yeah – there were differences
posters with “surrender to win” advices
callcenter connections only ifyou
paid for your vices
private appetites and public hunger
cause the last meal was at 5
and after
there was just the machinevendor
in dark corner
matching its thirst
with yours
and i realized then
that you really were my socialworker
cause
all the while you calmly told me about
staying insanely sane
i wanted to scream
howthefuckdowegetthefuckouttahere

….so you tell me
its about gender
that ive got to be for her
or else im just another
male-abider
that bodyprivacy
trumps wallstreet philosophy
and firstime officebearing
deserves a place in history
i hearya i do – but
(and these smokingbuts need
to be heard above your ifs and ors
cause we not going back to those
whatifs and whatthens – not anymore)
whatabout the privacy of bodies torn asunder
whatabout dronewars and welfarereform “blunders”
whatabout prisoners lassoed in as superpredators
whatabout notasking and nottelling cause she
thought she could serve two masters
whatabout afghanistan and colombia and libya and syria
whatabout muslimbaiters and obamabirthers
and above all
whatabout the hundreds of thousands
of daughters and sisters
who aint white like her
but are constantly in her crosshair
targetted cause the great pretender
doesnt consider
them to part of her gender
what? what?
go ask her
and then look me in the eye
and tell me
that she has
an answer

…listen…the center cannot hold anymore…so if youre not at least a little bit uncertain about where you are andabout what the implications of your political choices are andabout whether or not youre bucking the system or being subsumed into it then there is something definitely wrong…and thats what makes trump truly dangerous…he gives you this false sense of security that totally lubricates your slide into rightwing neoliberal oblivion…no time to even say goodbye because youre on that journey with other apparently leftminded sliders and you pass those of us who are trying to wallow through this quicksand by so quickly that we appear to be the ones stuck in cement…so ima throw this out into the ether hoping that at somepoint at someplace faraway and intothefuture these unpunctuated unwarnings overtake your slickedbobsledding into the murkymarket just like that first startrek movie where the enterprise came back to meet the future and somehow these rants make sense then because you’ll have learnt the language of whatifs and whatthens by then and you’ll finally ultimately….stop

….cornertrippin today
on k & a
pushin lyrics an poetry
an unrhymin fantasy
to morninmarchers
even
when they wont be
sparin a listen
‘cmon, go-on
you gonna wanna
hear these bars!’
wheedlin an hustlin
an droppin invisible mics
to el train
clacketyclackin
‘yo yo yo today
aint like other hip-hoppins
aint like other everydaylyricalhappenins
today
we mainlining
shootin into veins
collapsed by
diluted verse and prosaic prose
today we revivin from the overdose
today even i be
gettin high while sellin
cause today
this stashed crack
be leavin blood on your tracks
today these lyrics be finally
tambourine-in time
an today this rhyme
be blowin in winds in times
that finally be a-changin
today lyrics be crashin into poetry
an verse be finally
hip to hoppin

(inspired by the audience, written at the Savery Gallery performance)

…your violence
has learnt to write in cursive
every shooting
connecting up
to every city killing
bullets now comet-trailing
bloodlines
sewing the fabric of your police state together
i go to sleep today
in Charlotte
and in West Philly
and I sleep forever
and yet…

 

….go on muthafucka
tear my tongue out
and i’ll 
still be talking atya
still whispering into
sealed ears
until wax melts
burning through so deep that
your screams
remind me of
nights
when sleep
was just a way
to train for death
slice off tongue
whydontchya
and i’ll
stitch skin in with
flesh flayed from backs
rackd and lashd
still uncracked and now
lending bone
to tonguedrones
that’ll lick into your
deepest cavities
uncovering
bodies and dreams
and coaxing
final confessions 

 

 

 

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/kashmiri-activist-khurram-parvez-arrested-after-being-stopped-delhi-airport-693905

 

…..sharing tiffin
and homework
and class assignments
we assigned ourselves
to class
and resigned ourselves
from work
learning empirical logic
through
multiplication tables
and aryan myths
and national anthems
we thought our tantrums
would force them
to skip their incessant
exams
never dreamed that
those scores were
scouring deeper
than the radcliff line
dividing by percentiles
and solidifying
class reunions
years later
one percenters
meeting up here
to rant against
everyone who was still
a worker
all those same rituals
now habitual rites
of dual citizens
we still sharing
tiffin and
homework
and class
we still after all
fb friends

….ishoulda stoppd
when you fbtrolled:
‘gujarat was just crowd control’
shoulda stoppd
when ya
explained to ya
boston brahmins
that us indians are just aryans
shoulda def stoppd
when ya argued
that development
is burying
suicided farmers
under concrete pavements
roadbulldozing through
soiled earths
sanctified by
gangajal
ejaculating
outa skyscraping erections
shoulda stoppd
and choked down
weakass replies
when ya sighed
and
shook head at
lost opportunities
when
junglees
chipko to their trees
like apes preventing
evolution through
missingconnections
shoulda swallowed tears
and shutted-the-fuck-up
cause we now on ya
progresstrain
and questioningya
means we lose
our reservation

…ina
lesserthan
twoevils
election
victoryand
meter
arejust
pyrrhic

…aint nothin neo
bout this liberalism
keep doin old shit
by findin new shit
to be
scared of
blackman asrapist
brownwoman ashedonist
brownman asterrorist
orangeman as president
still the sameolshit
still followinprecedence