Today marks the first appearance in print of my poem "The Devil Comes Back."
Omar Villegas aka OuttaKnowhere made a film of it last year but it hadn't yet officially appeared in print. Today is that day. So head over to The Racket SF, pick up a copy... and maybe support earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria. They've been hit hard. Again. After having been hit so hard by war. It's hard to take if you pay attention even for a second. Contribute if you can.
Gimme a minute to tell you what's up with this poem: The aggressive history of the sugar trade. Sugar is cheap and a #1 killer. Sugar in the corner store. Sugar snacks. Sugar drinks. Sugar liquor. Thomas Kinkade's perverted images of sleepy towns in the snow. America's perverted Kinkade dreams of sugar dusted houses and white homogeneity. Sugar town cops busting a sugar shoplifting suspect with a knee to the neck pressed into the asphalt as justice. As if it is an officer's responsibility to mete out justice in the streets, into the streets, using the street as a correctional tool. George Floyd. More than Floyd. Sugar as a dead mentality and institution. Sugar as a cage, ending in death. Dead sugar prison complex. Sugar as a symbol of the American dream and the American nightmare. A white balloon needs air to fly and now we know of the Chinese balloon as well as the little French boy’s Red Balloon. Social justice as evasive as the balloon.
With that in mind, please read the poem:
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