Spilling out from every crevice of society
Dark red tendrils choking the necks of the Black and the Brown,
Of the Indigenous, of the Latinx, of the folx who are Transgender
And I’m screaming, my voice hoarse and until the white fist renders
Me useless
And I’m spilling blood but I don’t know it
Until I turn around and there they are
Face contorted in betrayal
“How could you” and “who are you” is written all over their faces
I can’t look at them
Because who am I
I look now
Really look
I am Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese,
Not one-third each like some flour measurement but wholly the three of them
And my favorite flower is the Tan Hua, by the way
I am a queer woman of color
I am a citizen with an acceptable accent
And my voice is amplified tenfold over the Black and Indigenous
They have been screaming and silenced long before I was screaming out of my mother’s body
And even then
I was louder than all of them put together
I look up
Because that’s what I do when I feel hopeless
But all I see are tall black hats and ebony fingers
Claws
They sit on their throne of currency up in the clouds
But the current flowing down only gets more contaminated until it is
Undrinkable and
Indiscernible from
The cruel abyss that are the eyes where the corruption started
And currently
I’m clawing at my own throat and blinking my clouded eyes
The neck of the bottle too narrow and too long to see the end
The bottle shakes as the alcohol rushes past, carrying our voices with it
I watch it disappear down the throat of the money man
I hope it burns
