day TWELVE HUNDRED and FIFTEEN

to the new, new normal wherever it is

there's a bunch of white people
having their own I need a haircut
party down at the courthouse
conditional soldiers armed
on the frontlines of institutional hubris

they've been lied to so long
they drink from the hands
of snake oil salesmen
let's hear it for the eucharist
for cannibalism, for exceptionalism

this isn't a plane crash
in the himalayas though
this isn't john rambo freeing
MIA prisoners in a war
for the hearts and minds
of free people everywhere

we lost that war
really we haven't won
a war in far too long to remember
if you don't believe me do yr research

our armies deployed to action
in the interest of profits that stick
long before they trickle down

wave yr assault weapons high
worry about yr privacy and freedom
withered. you can tell the woman
living in the pt cruiser on my street
just how bad you've had it
she shit's with no privacy
in a parking lot twice a day

I'm not saying you haven't
had a rough time of it
hell, its taking 25 years of clawing
for me to understand not being broke
I still have nothing, maybe

I got comfortable there

Nihilism is rampant in the richest country

honestly, I'm not as bad ass
as the woman who works
by herself at the post office everyday
behind bullet proof plexiglass
she worked her pregnancy
to term without missing a day
the contractions started on lunch
she went to the hospital
called her boss to say
they were keeping her
her boss told her
to come back
at least release the batch
but she wasn't coming back

and she said so
she was having her baby

--Jason Baldinger