One of Ours

☭ KL0WИ.G0V Ⓐ

My father’s a hardworking man

Who always had a way with being good

Warned me how easily the things I say

Could be misunderstood

Always encouraged to have courage,

Keep my mind well-fed, stay well-read

As I grew up he said, as often as one can,

That in order to be a man

I should say what I mean

And mean what I say

So when your little sign read like

“one of us for all of you”

I knew I had to tell you my view

Just one of us here

Are worth far more than all of you

Your souls are so tainted,

Steaming and painted so black

From the values you’ve stated

And are still seeming to lack

The lines are drawn so clearly

In the sand and the blood in the snow

So I gotta say, motherfucker,

It’s time for you to go

And when I say it’s time for you to go

I don’t mean back to your house up on the hill

I really mean straight to fucking hell

And you’ll know that I mean it

If you look at my face

Because I come from a place

Where we aren’t all dressed in the latest brands

Where a day’s work still shows on your hands

Where some hunt and fish dusk to dawn

And folks can tell a promise from a con

And everybody knows somebody who rose above their flaws

Who kept the lights on with three jobs and no applause

To us that nineteen-thirties aesthetic

Shone right through

On a pathetic little sign

Some DOGE intern probably drew

That one line reading like

“one of us for all of you”

Now I hope you get the cue

Just one of us

Are worth far more than all of you

Because this place was built

By people who can take a joke

But expect politicians

To fix the things they’ve broke

Now I’ll give you props

For speaking your mind

Even though all your thoughts

Are so unkind

And unto suffering

You seem so blind

You could be housing vets laying on the street

Shivering and suffering from your choices, left without any heat

You could be freeing farmers from unfair subsidies

Helping the students with the price of their studies

You could be feeding and clothing the poor

With healthcare and all the other needs you choose to ignore

You could be fixing what’s broken instead of selling it loud

You could be leading with duty instead of working the crowd

You could be measuring success in lives that you save

Instead of counting applause like it’s proof that you’re brave

You could be less obsessed with enemies to name

And more concerned with the damage done in your name

I know I’ve had my fun

Tempting the trigger of your gun

But know what it really said

When the day is done

One of us, all of yours

Those words had humans hiding

In ceilings and beneath floors

And if facts don’t care about feelings

I’ll be ignoring yours

Because real humans don’t use people as stats

To increase their scores

Okay from city farm

Embracing the sick reducing harm

The Bohemian kinky and the strange,

The poor asking for change

Foreigners in need suffering intolerable greed, two-spirit, disabled, indigenous, the trans and their fans Cubano, Mexicano

Those who suck and those who swallow

Quiet, or loud we are all damaged but proud

People who don’t fit your designations

People you don’t get who don’t owe you explanations

Gay, lesbian, queer

Still here, year after year

Everything that drives your deepest fear

We like them here

We keep them near

They’re one of ours

One of ours

And one of ours

Means we share every meal

We reach out to heal

It means we stay and build

Remember together the ones that you’ve killed

Until our streets are no longer filled

With even

One of yours