Patriot Bomb

I am ticking, the beats
of my heart tracking
the countdown. My body is still
as my insides swirl and ignite
in preparation for the cataclysm
of my soul. I am a time bomb, a land
mine, a nuke dropped from the sky
to wreak havoc on the hateful hearts
and scornful souls. I am here to bring
down chaos and anarchy upon their
stifling and suppressive order. I will
not let their actions nor words make me
disconnected and harmless. Instead, with my love,
I will shatter their concrete skin to bring out the open
emotion hidden within. It might be censored
and suppressed, but I know it is there, hidden
in every heart, yearning and screaming to get out
if it is not manifested by the one who possesses it.

I am a terrorist, here to scare the suffering out
of the masses. I will sacrifice myself with TNT
of tenderness strapped to my skin. I declare a war
on hatred, fought with weapons of massive passion,
used to bring a burning light into the eyes
of those who have blinded themselves to the beauty
within the differences and undulations of our humanity.
That is what brings us unity, the commonality
of our diversity, not the similarity of our skin, our sex,
or our spirituality. My soul is bursting with the desire
to bring an end to the segregation, separation, and striking
destruction of those who wish to only see
those like themselves. They may try to disarm me,
but my heart will never stop counting. Besides,
it is too late. My time is up. I explode.

My flesh flies out, soaring, reaching, touching
those ignorant bystanders, hoping to penetrate
their petrified hearts with my serene debris
of affection. A mushroom cloud spreading
out with the sweet smoke of sympathy erupts
from my soul to contaminate the very breath
of those dead to the glorious distinctions
of our nation. My blood leaks out with radioactive
empathy to mutate any person’s hating insides
into the rare love of accepting those unlike us.
My emotions emit a raging fire that burns
the sorrow, sickness, and avarice of all, wishing
that by its light we can finally see that we are all
of one people, humans with spirits of such love,
we do not realize the immense benevolent
power we hold.

Now, that this end has come, we will burn
to the ground, our ashes the dust of the discrimination
that we have shrugged off. After the fire,
we will be reborn, phoenixes rising with flames
of compassion from the ashes of prejudice.
This is the war to end all wars, a battle fought,
not with weapons, but with love and not to bring
about dead innocents but thriving empathetic acceptance.
This is the America I am a patriot for, not for the wars
we fight nor the power we have, but for the freedoms
we have and the many peoples we are.