Burning Playground
wrote this in 2023. edited. part of the “sharing what i wrote without polishing it to oblivion” series.
this world is a burning playground and i am staring into the fire.
choking on the smoke but laughing at the same time.
honoring the dead and holding the living.
making space for grief and for more corpses that line the streets i do not see.
staring into death’s eyes until my eyes burn with tears and
blood boils with rage.
i look at how death acts and wonder who designed the work they have to execute.
death looks back at me:
“the government and the cult of comfort”.
how lucky am i
to stand there and merely look at death from far away (for now)
wondering what their face is like
instead of it being my last sight
the world is a burning playground
and i realize
how many do not see the fire
to some it is obvious, as bright as a sun
up close and as hot as boiling asphalt
(and as the hell they say we’ll go to)
to most
it is a coal-seam fire
deep underneath the surface
burning the ground beneath their feet,
hollow.
until it collapses, swallowing them whole.
they look at those who see the orange fires and spit in their direction:
“hope this’ll help put it out”.
an illusion orchestrated by intense fear,
they think we are blinded by ourselves as we “hallucinate” what they refuse to see.
they are the ones who fog the windows from the inside the building.
with a smoke bomb that projects
the long-gone “normal” onto mirrors.
the world is a burning playground.
yet
it is still a playground.
figuring out this game they had us play
without consent for most and
with complicity from those who benefit.
even death shakes their head at what silence makes them do.
we are screaming and crying and playing
and hugging and grieving
and carrying with our bare hands
the pieces of hope and rage
we keep creating along the way
and adding together
like a collage of a massive scale
it could cover the earth like a blanket
things touch and morph shapes
a portrait of our world emerges
our lifetimes will paint layers towards
its morphing form.