Rainbow Fish 2021

Community is pretty useless

When your family, friends, and workplace

Include and support you and your

Various individual truths.

In this way it’s almost as if

Community is something

Humans form

To survive an outside threat, to

Thrive beyond surviving, to

Find safety and inclusion—

All things that become

Meaningless

If they are already all around you.

Trying to explain

Discrimination to people

Who haven’t experienced it

Is like talking to a fish

About land

Who’s never been fished —

You’ve gotta gasp for air

Worry for your life

And feel alone, thrashing in some

Alien confine

In order to know what that’s like—

There are fewer nets

Than ever, but

Plenty are still getting overfished

Or otherwise culled, but

Just like anti-vaxxers

The more effective the remedy

The harder it is

To convince a new generation

Who’s never seen the disease

Why we’re vaccinating—

It’s not surprising at all

That the abortion debate is back on the table, considering

All of those very real, very horrible forums.

My cousin shared a photo

Of a fake mutilated baby corpse

During thanksgiving last year

Bitch is barely 19 years old.

So— am I surprised that

Social issue progress is stalled?

Nah, ya’ll

All of that shit just evolved.

It’s nice though because

So many of us

Can live comfortably and supported

By our friends family and community

Despite our differences, largely

Due to things like anti-discrimination laws.

God I hope in a few decades

They don’t let that shit fall..