Novena Carmel:
if wine was a river
and i was a duck
i’d dive to the bottom and never come up
but since wine ain’t no river
and i ain’t no duck
imma drink this wine
til i’m fucked up
now dig all you cats and kitties out there whipping and wailing and sucking up all that ole fine juice
well imma put a lady on you
she is the coolest
the sweetest
the poet-est
and the worldliest
and she from new york city
and this gal
her name is
aja monet
aja monet:
the devil you know
taxes the air we breathe
privatises the water
profits of homelessness
strangles the land and injects hormones in animals rapes the people and rewards the rich
charges you
for being sick
sends a bill to your loved ones with interest when you die laughs at us coughing up our lungs
gulping water, lead dripping off our chins
buys private ships to the moon
dancing with your demons
the selfish, individualistic part of you
the one who rather not have a foot on your neck
or who shows up to the rally
after sipping sweet comfort at a corporate gig
that pays you just enough to die a little slower
tired and community fostering care
how being black
or woman
or queer
or trans
or other
or human
or inhumane
computer or code
able bodied ten fingers, ten toes

running
or right or wrong
how none ofitmatters
when the earth is a hand written letter from the past
a ghost sculpted in blood, city sweating bitter memories
flooded by crawling maggots and swollen hurt
how, how the sewers sing of old sidewalks
and cool breezes are our fairytales
we spoon feed our children in the heat
and we were never ourselves, had we known who we are without greed a world decorated by betrayal
if we had a sense of humour x 2
we’d be more radical
more migrant than citizen
we’d breathe the air clean and ration our resources
gathering hugs and holds set to bloom
and pebbles of rain reasoning with riverbeds rinsing in daylight
ridding pipelines and fossil fuels
we would melt all the guns x 2 (melt all the guns)
the moist in the back of our knees
the lick between knuckles mocking evil
and all its ill designed destruction
we would choose the scar
we would bulldoze the walls
and plant windows where widows weep
beautiful green lakes hushed in our cradling arms
we’d become
the tiny brooklet kissing creeks
we are, we are near a point of no return
a wounded woman scorn
temper sharp as a thousand shards
aimed in one direction
i am weary for weeping
“me too”
she whispers
“me too”
the earth said.
Interlude
the most important election is in the heart
a campaign of soul
a candidate measured by their courage
in the midst of the enduring strength of love voting for the inner standing
how we make a way through no way in a basement church or a high school auditorium
a family living room
these days
these days insanity is the sanity stifled sobs, despair, distress, thrill p r a i s e the people x 2

praise the peoples power
the poet laureates of the poor
care warm anthems sawn from the keyholes of closed, shut doors the whistle of who and why
the architect of self-determination
if you gon’ vote x 2
vote with your spine
a head held high
vote x 6
with the way you love
a gut singing soft city sleep dreaming of protest
the ballot
the ballot is not a bullet
but it can be a border or a bridge
you choose (she got make me vote)
how you gon’ vote
pour into each other
how we mourn those we’ve lost
how we all hold the grief
vote x3
with childcare
how you nurse the sick
lending someone your heart
pay fair wages x 2
thats the least you can do, is pay fair wages
vote
vote by listening
resist the artificial division of our deaths
held together by a common thread of
concerned, self-determined, reliant
respect
the body is a ballroom of grief and despair
we the life
we the chosen
we the freed migrant rebel workers
we the word workers
we the shoeless and standing tall
we the houseless and housing parks
we the teachers still students
we the farmers in the field
we the shamans being healed
revolution
revolution is not a spectator sport
silence
is a noise too
somewhere
somewhere there is an incorruptible spirit
re-remembering a time when we voted with the thoughts in our minds it begins with you
it begins with you loving you enough to me as i am you

we are the country’s consciousness rising
and we are only as powerful as our vote made in the flesh our voice
our voice bravely raising up
reverberating
new visions