A full device restart was necessary before posting this poem because somehow overnight the copy function had disappeared from the poet’s notes app.

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Recorded Reading (0:40): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zam5zdaxrrue5zeiwdom1/The-Last-Thing-America-Wants.mp3?rlkey=a4oltptbdpfpgd7q1wh2xeg0y&st=iucyskw7&dl=0

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The Last Thing America Wants

Hatred’s the last sound I hear
Before I go to sleep each night
Hatred’s the first sound I hear
When I wake (it’s not yet light)

Tear gas rises up to meet me
Airborne arsenic defeat me
This is how my nation greets me
With apprec’iative delight

Within my day’s first ten minutes
Making sure I know it:
The last thing my country wants
Is a master poet

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This poet/editor is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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