This Wednesday 
Democracy reported the hate crimes 
Democracy named her rapist.

Show me black lips and 
star spangled bright bruises.
Today
we we walk to 
hold high 
the underwear our rapists thought
looked like packing tape--
Try to ship me past boarders--
package me again and again--
you can rape me but you can't rape
democracy from this country--
We paint your walls with rainbows 
and Trans-pride flags-- we climb 
your brick borders
in crowds of ivy-- bare finger blood--
-- we speak
Mexican-- we speak 
Muslim brother--
We speak trans sister 
we speak black-- we speak queer--
we speak love-rainbow-stonewall-broken-
police-car-window
We speak for naked Ellis Island 
who washes her face in a park bathroom--
Lady liberty on her knees
naming her rapist for the first time
to herself in the dark of her bedroom--
face lit by the hourly passing
of the Staten Island ferry
all the bodies push against the ship's
railing and sing-- we believe
you we believe you we beleive you--
We speak for burning Los Angeles-- 
We speak louder than the NYPD gunshot
that finally broke the liberty bell 
in two halves--
You can rip me white stripe and
cut me like blood
lines dug by slave knuckles--
shoot me 50 times for each star
these white men stole from the sky
to pretend they could count freedom--
count freedom in black body wounds--
count freedom in a night club
in Orlando where we thought
we were finally allowed to be Queer--
Show me burned forearms 
and write your slurs on my forehead
in sharpie-- in switch blade
in confederate bayonettes --
This dyke
This slut
This whore
Call me call me call me 
Call me your rape doll-- your hate crime craft project--
AMERICA ELECTED BACK KING GEORGE
AND THOUGHT THIS QUEER DYKE WOULD
EVER ACCEPT HIM AS MY PRESIDENT--
My president will denounce racism
with her foot steps--
she'll hang flags upside
down as a distress signal-- echo 
the voices of the centuries 
of oppression that reverberate
in all our blood lines
I refuse to listen to another
white man tell me what my body was
for-- I refuse to be his desk doll-- 
And to my father 
who voted for HIM
your vote tells me you want to 
decide what your child is
name me "daddy's girl"
and call it a day--
Here's a memo asshole 
Your child is a proud
strong queer poet who
wore black this Wednesday
and until these fathers learn
how to spell something other 
than toxic masculinity
other than racism
other than white fragility--
On Wednesdays I will wear black--
On Wednesdays we will speak silence--
On Wednesdays we will
not let this country forget
that we witnessed her rape-- we will
not stand by while they write
racial slurs on her front porch-- together
wash our faces in the park bathroom
Wear black. Wear black. 
Wear the underwear we were raped in.
Democracy wears black with us 
this Wednesday.