Confusing myself for the bad deed
I woke up at sunrise and said: not anymore
Like escaping your own smell
And I would molt skin and bone but my ancestor said:
the scent lingers
Incarcerated firefighters today announced a breakthrough
I was heartbroken in believing the progress
Retaliations confused us, we thought we had
quenched it safely in the near east (the far west)
until the jungles melted to a virus of trash bags
masked in tropical fragrance
Perhaps it is not up to me so I’ll say
I light this flame in dedication to my progenitors,
part of the human inheritance
In the name of posterity:
I drone strike our archeaology into a boneless soil
this underbrush has been building up long between us
down in the crowded underworld
you disbelieve when I say violence is chronic to every evolution
you stand for sapient exceptionalisms reminiscent of America
In truth I pray you will condemn me, forgive me for napalm baptismals
the cruelty will play a role in the coming faith
Setting alight from overhead:
Abandon me as your ancestor