democracy

July 12, 2025 [part 2]

/ HJ / Leave a comment

while we didn’t fall in love with Lisbon
like we thought we might

we definitely fell in love with Europe
and the fact that people here
seem to be a little bit more functional/
the democracies around here
definitely are more functional
than the shitshow we left
and are now approaching back

and Paris
the surprise contender
from least likely
to most
in our future endeavors

[is it just that we fall in love with
anything
that reminds us of New York?]

[is that the moral of this whole experience?]

May 18, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

hiding
or fighting
a fascist dictatorship

a takeover of/from
what once called itself
the paradigm of democracy

and we the people
somehow
voted this power-monger in

[though, with wealth, it’s easy enough
to turn the tides of an election
with tactics on either side
of the line of
voter fraud]

but what do we do
when our numbers mean so little
against media takeovers and social distractions
and virtue signaling and in-fighting?

a revolution is at hand
but the powerful seem to have control
over literally everything

[we’ve been here before —
we, as a species —
perhaps the technology is new,
but i’m certain
i’m certain
the despair and feeling of powerlessness
has all happened
and will all happen
again
and again
and again and again and again
because humans hunger for power
almost as much as they hunger for community

it’s just
will we learn
from our past

or not?]

May 10, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

whenever folks have asked me, lately,
how i’m doing
[as a regular “good morning”/“hello again!” introduction]
i always answer honestly
[because i really can’t not
unless i’m in the midst of going somewhere else
and only have the time for the word “fine”]
i’ve been answering
after a pause
“good? i mean, if i’m not thinking about
the state of the world
and our country
and the eroding rights
that no one in power
seems to be stopping,
yeah, i’m actually, surprisingly, doing well.
but, you know, the minute i think about
anything outside of myself
i fall apart”

and the folks who have asked me
nod in agreement
then sigh and shake their heads in disgust
and we begin a dialogue
about all the terror
located in our nations capital
[and all over]

and while this hostile government takeover/
overt turn into fascism
is actively terrifying and illegal and immoral
it is making it okay
to talk about government abuses
in the day to day,
and be honest
that we shouldn’t actually
be okay,

so i suppose i’ll give it that.

[strangely, does fascism bring us all in
closer to community
because we actively, finally, see
what we all so desperately need?]

November 25, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i would like the word “billionaire”
to have the same negative connotation
as other words that really oughtn’t —
like “bitch” or “cunt”
or even racialized words…
let’s take the social implications
and flip them on their head.

just leaning femme doesn’t make someone
hated

and someone’s race no longer invites
such hatred being
spat

it’s the power usurped or gotten through
inhumane ways
that needs to be a slur
that needs to be a slur
let’s make “billionaire”
a slur
until all mega-rich people
give philanthropically
until their billions are
‘mere’ millions
and
people don’t hope to be one
anymore
[and then maybe their power
in our ‘democracy’/oligarchy
will be
nil]

October 31, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i want to write about halloween
and spooky times
and how much i love
this time of year

but i’ve been dealing with deep dark fears
of genocide
and our complicity in it
and how that makes political fallout
even more extreme
and i just want a candidate i can believe in
or a system i truly think is working
but instead we’ve got

this

[whatever this is
in terms of an american experiment
that probably shouldn’t have been tried
and we should have just left this land
and its people
alone…]

but i’m here
this is a fact
and there’s an ethnic cleansing happening half a world away
that i can see as i scroll in my own warm bed
another fact
and the choice between two candidates
two sides
of the same coin
still factual
and yet
one would bring about fascism
much
much
much
faster
[he has stated this in his plans all along — facts]

so i’m actually
for real
scared
afraid
for my life and liberty

and no, i’m not overreacting

[my favorite time of year
has been ruined by election anxiety
and i can’t even feel that affronted
because so much worse things are happening
all over
everywhere]

so please

vote