Today she became a gang member.
I wonder how many gangs and gang leaders
there are. Films and books describe their behavior
and lawmakers and the press champion them.
You can become one, too. Belong to something
greater than yourself. You’ll no longer be afraid—
but you won’t exist anymore, either.
The gangs and their gang leaders will exclude you
as they unite against you
giving you one more chance to “be like us.”
Your speech, once considered normal, triggers them.
Everything becomes reactive and is defined in those terms.
Speech explains itself, defends itself, and is no longer connected to reality.
The gang member instantly knows who belongs
and who doesn’t. I’m not one of you
and you know it, don’t you? Even as you
helplessly love me. I already was one of you
in a far more fundamental, non-reactive way.
I already belonged to something greater
which is pleasant and plain and ordinary
and never compromises or hides.
First I absorbed, then tore up, all the guides.