Activist, Wildlife Biologist, and Poet Mat Bailey

Fish School and Zebras Have stripes by Mat Bailey They say that fish school and zebras have stripes so that predators can’t focus in on a single target. 27 May 2020 was one of those days where the herds of evils swirled around me and I lost track. First, I learned that T rump was perched to pull the us out of the World Health Organization in the heart of a global pandemic.  Then, immediately afterward, some putrescent item about a further deflowering of the Endangered Species Act (herd distraction clouds the specifics for me at this remove). OK, Par for the course….. I stepped out of the ring, to make some food and savor a quiet meal. Savor a quiet meal. Then, I Chromed on.  Broke trail towards my email.  This guy named Floyd kept infiltrating my feed. George Floyd. I looked into it. After that I was pretty raw, I am pretty raw. Dammit.  Remember, recall. We are not the prey.  We’ve all got predator in us, maybe a lot.  We got teeth that can chomp and grind and tear shit up. We can eat anything we hunger after.  And it is for us to choose what we swallow. Focus, find an issue.  Know almost everything about a few things and press your advantage.  Think, compare. Follow the trail, don’t lose track.  If we all follow towards the truth of the trails we know, we will all gather at the same watering hole, but arrive from different paths And I could write this all out like classic English lit and balance it up. But fuck it, it feels right. Right now.  Right Now. And anyway, there ain’t no way to make it pretty.  Or even equitable.  So, I’m going to pass out, pass around that first taste that came into my mouth at the 27 May Raw Bar.  And if the taste is acrid to you, as it is to me; spit it out and aim it well. With surgical precision. A POEM George Floyd A moment of silence? How about four minutes of pleading? How about eight minutes and 46 seconds of brutal, literal, lethal oppression? How about a Life sentence for a murderer…. or four? How long, How Long , How Long? my god. So, in conclusion, remember, recall, this ain’t no goddamn Blue Plate Special.  Not this time.  Not this time. WE’ve paid an adult price for this buffet, and WE can come back as many times as we like. Until We are satisfied.