Today's rhaps is on ... Democracy

White Flag, Jasper Johns,1955

​Western thought is based on a culture that denigrates women and slaves. From the white pillars of the Acropolis to the slave-built White House in Washington DC, that certain men are created equal holds—as long as their anatomy bypasses wombs and melanin.

They need us to prop them up. We decline at our peril, get hunted down and slaughtered, gassed in the streets and hustled into unmarked vans. An occasional Sultan or President stoops to set us free, yet in the Reconstructions and Reconciliations a new Apartheid is forced down our throats. We try to beat them at their own game, wear suits and ties, get rich enough to eat the poison cake. We become them, and disappear.

We strive for a Democracy truly whole, one that lives up to its logical goal. For if we all count, the count must include us all. Born in the seeds of exclusion, the body politic evolves in salty gasps and budding limbs, climbing out of a distant sea, Mare Nostrum, to the shining shores of a mighty land, to a cruel place built upon our sweating backs, to children born of our labor, to a future born of an inalienable dream.

13 DECEMBER 2020

Democracy

​Western thought

Is based on a culture that

Denigrates

Women and slaves.

From the white pillars of the

Acropolis

To the slave-built

White House

In Washington DC

That certain men are created equal holds!

As long as their anatomy

Bypasses

Wombs and melanin.

They need us to prop them up!

We decline at our peril

Get hunted down

And slaughtered

Gassed in the streets and

Hustled into unmarked vans.

An occasional Sultan

Or President

Stoops

To set us free, yet

In the Reconstructions

And Reconciliations

A new Apartheid is

Forced

Down our throats.

We try to beat them at their own game

Wear suits and ties

Get rich enough

To eat the poison cake.

We become them

And disappear.

We strive for a Democracy truly whole!

One that lives up to its logical goal.

For if we all count

The count must include us all.

Born in the seeds of exclusion

The body politic evolves

In salty gasps and budding limbs

Climbing out of a distant sea

Mare Nostrum

To the shining shores

Of a mighty land!

To a cruel place

Built upon our sweating backs

To children born of our labor

To a future born

Of an inalienable dream.

18 APRIL 2025