We the People, I and II

Made of speeches of deceit

And handshakes of hell;

Bred with smiles of war–yet

You expect this election to end well?

How naive.

Pedestals and ballots aren’t won in this country with honor, but with falsified testimonies

Bribed officials

And by stepping on others;

I watch in angst, as do the masses—

I am afraid the world is about to be tipped from its axis—

Red blood and blue blood will taint the streets like a river does and no white flag shall be waved; no white save the shrouds clothing the dead left in democracy’s wake–

Watching the anchorman counting the votes

Is like watching a ticking bomb and waiting for it to explode.

We the people

See the lies

Politicians spew,

With laughter in their throat

And cold calculation in their dead eyes.

–        We the People, I

 

And I continue to choke

On this spoon-feed view that reeks

Of double standards 

And speaks 

Of untold horrors–ode to the horror of slanderous press

Press releases press release on triggers, triggering land mines upon innocents once minding their own businesses, now suddenly drowning in detonated territories, identifying loved ones by car keys and parts of bodies–innocents turned veterans, hit with atrocity after atrocity 

Yet you have the audacity

To condense their martyrdom into a ballot; to barter their bodies for your political parties?

This aid and these peace pleas are knee-deep

In performance activism and personal needs—you need

People to condemn sins conditionally, and profitably

But the browned bloodstains riddling your pristine silk ties and glittering cufflinks have once more grown suspiciously wet—and a curious stench

Has begun to permeate from

Your courtrooms and your offices;

A fire has been lit

From the matches you thought you’d staunched

Under those pinch-toed shoes–

It is too late now for you to do as you’ve always done–too late to preserve justice on your own terms

Because the people–the world–will no longer turn away and forget all the times you just let it all burn. 

–        We the People, II

 

I wrote the first installment of the first poem during the 2020 election and the second one across two occurrences: the time that Biden called the genocide of the Uyghur Muslims a “cultural norm,” and in regards to the Biden-turned-Kamala administrative response to “the war in Israel-Gaza.” I wish everyone would stop calling it that. Gaza is a territory of Palestine. Taking Palestine out of the headline is linguistic erasure. And it’s not a war, it is a genocide. I’m sick of the Democrat apologists and have never been keen on the Republican party. Paradoxically, I would say dissent is the most American thing about me. Zamyatin was right–revolution is infinite. I do not know what this upcoming election will bring but it feels like we sure as hell are on the brink of something.

 

~ Maaheen Shaikh `25