My life as a colony: a self-portrait in four parts

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PART ONE: THE WORD I GAVE WAS A JOYFUL PRAYER. / CLAIRE O’BRIEN 2014

PART ONE: THE WORD I GAVE / CLAIRE O’BRIEN 2014

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 PART  TWO:  NO ONE WILL EVER BELIEVE YOU / CLAIRE  O’BRIEN 2014

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PART THREE: FUCK YOU

PART THREE: FUCK YOU / CLAIRE O’BRIEN 2014

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PART FOUR: PRESS RELEASE

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 FROM: THE BARBARIANS.

AT:  THE GATES

PART  ONE

  The despised and the crazy, the last secret kings,

the  underground flyers without any wings,

the sidewalk sleepers, dumpster creepers,

desert walkers, subway talkers.

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Some who stink and some who crawl,

the face of God down every hall.

 Perfect boys with basketballs:

radient beauty trampled down

fallen stars upon the ground.

They need to know the world is good :

We’re here to get their childhoods.

 .Those who work all night for crack

turning tricks across the tracks

kicked like dogs, knocked out and smacked:

We are here to pay them back.

Mountain  people with no teeth:

Cartoon men of ancient speech

They  have not eaten  for a week.

They don’t demand their equal due.

That’s why we are coming  through

and why we’re headed straight for you.

PART  TWO

It’s funny how much people hate

to see me standing at the Gates,

presuming  I can give expression

to real,  system-wide oppression.

To them I say,” Well you tell me

why nothing here applies to me.

Why every  fundamental right

applies to everyone  in sight

except for those you single out

as people who just do not count.

Although the feds made it a crime,

lawyers do it all  the time.

No one has to give a shit

about the bottom of the list:

That is what the bottom’s for –

you’re not a person anymore.

PART THREE

Some  people learn this  lesson, then live it every day

“No matter what you,  do,  no matter what you say.

No matter if the work you do gets better everyday,

No  matter all the  damage caused  by lies that others  say –

There is nothing  you can do to change the role you play.

We took you down forever, and down is where you’ll  stay.”

If you don’t see stigma as oppression in every single way

or understand the world I lost, and lose anew each day,

Then consider  four years later, as I hold my breath and pray

for  a few unbroken promises that won’t just fade  away.

And  let us call out bigotry, for that’s its real name –

 as ugly as it sounds and as worthy of the shame,

as global and destructive as any tyrant’s reign.