HORSEFACE

Written October 2022

Notes: I wrote this in an almost rant-like way. I remember being very worked up after watching a video on various social issues, and so I opened a word doc and just started writing

“Pull yourself up”
They said
And they laughed because they had the strength
Or they pretend they might have
To inspire
Or to preach
Or to shove you away–
And families they give their money
To young-face boy billionaires
To men with receding hairlines
Who don’t have a cure for cancer
Who build rocketships to space
For only themselves

And of course we're mad!
Of course i'm slamming words
Into a free website
For free thinkers
And i hope i go somewhere

We're living in basements
And some on the streets
And artists are dying like Vincent
And artists are preaching in videos
About how they learned to work for a company
That gets bought up and shut down

We're individuals!
We're people!
We need to save ourselves!
Who can fix us but the power we hold within us?
Therapists don't help
Parroting back our own insecurities
Hoping we work them out
The demand is too high
Replace it with an app!
And dehumanize consumers
Until they're dying on live tv

I thought this poem would make me famous
Maybe it would pay for college
Maybe it would make me rich
So I can sit on Mars and laugh

I heard a poem in class
About billboards and owing money
It struck me that we're all living
Under the same roof
All writing words in anger
About money and power
And at eleven years old
I thought i could do more for the environment
Than the people spilling oil rigs into oceans

If you want people to stop hating you,
Then you should make yourself more like them
You should stack ladders on themselves
And duct-tape them together
And reach the moon that way
And tell all your friends that you’re leaving your old life behind
And that you're going to university

I want to believe in a future
Where people aren’t afraid of the homeless
Where i don’t force myself to look away because i can’t bring myself to give
Where the victims of our system aren’t left behind by their friends who’re escaping
And I don't want to stop the car
To give the people who live in poverty
My leftover lunch

And the computers
And email scams
And the blog posts
Top Ten ways to get rich slightly-quicker-than-normal
what-is-normal-?
Here, you-should-break-too-many-laws
Its-the-only-way-out
repeated-offense-
get-thrown-in-a-prison-full-of-people-who-want-you-dead
And-bow-to-a-judge-that-hates-you
And-a-jury-who-wants-to-get-back-to-work
To-get-their-paycheck
to-bow-to-a-boss-that-wants-them-dead

Oh look how much better we are!
We don't burn witches at the steak like those unimportant-third-in-line-lost-to-the-causes-places!
We broadcast them on national tv so that people know their names and faces
And can find them on a free website for free-thinkers
And throw bricks through their windows
Because they're trying to make a difference
And we laugh because we learned about being a businessman from blogs

Our lives are not connected
Its us against them
Pay respects for a queen but not for the good-hearted volunteer who was shot-dead by a man who protects our country
Pay respects for our still-living ex-president
Who broadcasted my name on national tv
And not for me
And no respect for me
Because i'm not rich
Because i didn't know how to be smart
Because i am stuck
We’re all stuck

Pull yourself together
And get out of your well
And listen to no one
And work your nine to five
And work your six to eight
And work your twelve to twelve
And have children for us

Eat the money if you have to,
Eat your friends if you have to,
Eat yourself if you have to,
Your boots were made for running.