day ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY

Ash

From the sidelines it seems even worse.

The infighting,

the harassment

the hashtags

#LyingLiz

#MayorCheat

#BernieBro

It’s all right there, allowing us to scramble

and tear at each other desperate to pick

not only the person that can beat him

but the one that we have championed

our own savior

our personal jesus

just like the way the other side sees the President.

The swollen bloated carcass of populism.

I take a step back and then another

and it comes into sharp terrifying focus

not only the possibility of four more years

four more years of violence

and racism

for more years of suppression and fear

and murder and war

and the choking desperate death of Earth,

Not just those four more years

but the four afterwards

the four years beyond

when Ivanka Trump

becomes the first woman president

and everything I ever believed turns to ash.

 --Ally Malinenko