To the Masterminds of Paranoid Nationalism
I say, we say:
"We," the Other people
We, the migrants, exiles, nomads & wetbacks
in permanent process of voluntary deportation
We, the transient orphans of dying nation-states
la otra America; l'autre Europe y anexas
We, the citizens of the outer limits and crevices
of "Western civilization"
We, who have no government;
no flag or national anthem
We, fingerprinted, imprisoned, under surveillance
We, evicted from your gardens & beaches
We, interracial lovers,
children of interracial lovers, ad infinitum
We, who defy your fraudulent polls & statistics
We, in constant flux,
from Patagonia to Alaska,
from Juarez to Ramalla,
We millions abound,
We continue to talk back…continue, continue (in loop)
(Shamanic tongues)
To those up there who make dangerous decisions for mankind
I say, we say:
We, the unemployed, who work so pinche hard
so you don't have to work that much
We, whose taxes send your CEOs & armies
on vacation to the South
We, the homeless, faceless vatos aquellos
in the great American metropolis
little Mexico, little Cambodia, little purgatory
We, the West Bank & Gaza strip of Gringolandia
We, within your system, without your mercy
We, w/out health or car insurance,
w/out bank accounts & credit cards,
We, scared shitless at ground level,
but only at ground level
We will outlive your project X, Y, Z, culeros
(Shamanic tongues)
To the Lords of Censorship & Intolerance
I say, we say:
We, mud people, snake people, tar people
We, Living Museum of Modern Oddities & Sacred Monsters
We, vatos cromados y chucas neo-barrocas
We, the permanently unsatisfied subcultural typos
We, the immoral majority sieging your dreams
of purity & order
We, against the corruption of formalized religion & art
We, bohemians walking on millennial thin ice
Our bodies pierced, tattooed, martyred, scarred
Our skin covered with hieroglyphs & flaming questions
We, indomitable drag queens, transcendental putas
waiting for love and better conditions in the shade
We, "subject matter" of fringe documentaries
We, the Hollywood refusniks,
los greaser bandits & holy outlaws
of advanced Capitalism
We, without guns, without Bibles
We, who never pray to the police or to the army
We, who barter and exchange favors & talismans
We, who still believe in community, another community,
a much stranger and wider community
We, community of illness, madness & dissent
We, scared and defiant
We shape your desire while you contract our services
to postpone the real discussion
(Shamanic tongues)
To those who have conveniently ignored our voice:
I say, we say:
We, who talk back in rarefied symbols & metaphors
We, the artists & intellectuals who still don't wish to comply
We, bastard children of two humongous nouns:
"heterodoxia" e "iconoclastia"
We, radical theorists in the academic trenches
We, the urban monks who pray in tongues & rap in Esperanto
We, who put on masks, penachos & wigs to shout
We, standing still in our underwear
right in the center of the stage
with the words carved on our chests:
"Performance artist: will bleed for food"
We, critical brain mass
We, fuga inminente de cerebros y hormonas
We, spoken word profética, sintética
(Shamanic tongues)
To those who are as afraid of us as we are of them
I say, we say:
We, generic brown & black males who fit all
taxonomic descriptions
We, who have no name whatsoever in the news
We, edited out, pixilated, censored, postponed
We, beyond the video frame, behind the caution tape
We, tabloid subject matter par excellence
We, involuntary actors of "The Best of Cops"
We, eternally stalking mythical blonds in the parking lot,
We, mistaken identities in your computer memory
We, black & brown nude bodies in the morgue
We, embalmed bodies in the Museum of Mankind
We, one strike & we're out; two strikes and you're in
We, prisoners of war in times of peace;
prisoners of consciousness without a trial
We, prime targets of ethnic profiling (your favorite sport)
We, of the turban, burka, sombrero, bandana, leather pants
We surround your neon architecture
While you call the FBI, and the Homeland Security Office
(pause)
Yes, we are equally scared of one another…Your move…
(Howling)
To the share-holders of mono-culture
I say, we say:
We, bilingual, polylingual, cunnilingual,
Nosotros, los otros del mas allá
del otro lado de la línea y el puente
We, rapeando border mistery; a broader history
We, mistranslated señorrita,
eternally mispronounced
We, lost and found in the translation
lost & found between the layers of this text
We speak therefore you cease to be
even if only for a moment
I am, US, you sir, no ser
Nosotros seremos
Nosotros, we stand not united
We, matriots not patriots
We, Americans with foreign accents
We, Americans in the largest sense of the term
(from the many other Americas)
We, in cahoots with the original Americans
who speak hundreds of beautiful languages
incomprehensible to you
in cahoots with dozens of millions of displaced
Latinos, Arabs, blacks & Asians
who live so pinche far away from their land
& their language
(Shamanic tongues)
We feel utter contempt for your myopia
& when we talk back, you loose your grounds
(Shamanic tongues)
I speak, therefore we continue to be…on the same page
on the same strange planet
To the masters and apologists of war
& their pitiful "Coalition of the Willing"
I say, we say:
We, caught in the crossfire,
between Christian fear & Muslim rage,
We, rebels, not mercenaries
We, labeled "extremists" for merely disagreeing with you
We, thinking majority against unilateral stupidity
We, against preemptive strikes & premature ejaculation
We reject your arms sales & oil deals
We, distrust your orange alert & your white privilege
We, oppose the Patriot Act patrioticamente
the largest surveillance system ever,
the biggest prison complex to date
We, oppose your "full spectrum dominance"
We, who are never polled by Fox News
We, who never get to debate Chris Mathews
We, whose opinions are never on the front page
of your morning paper
We did not vote for you, Magister Dixit
do not support your wars, Master Cannibal
do not believe in your Infinite Justice
We demand your total TOTAL withdrawal
from our minds and bodies ipso-facto
We demand the total restructuring
of the world economic system
in the name of democracy & freedom, las nuestras
(pause)
And you, Mad Cowboy, are you taking note?
or are you already on your way to Mars?
(Shamanic tongues much longer & wild)
I speak in tongues therefore you evaporate, evaporate, adios.
Poetic Disobedience Text (