“here’s your spinning blue dot, now bring it to life.”

and so we did. from friction we forged fires and from fires we forged civilizations. we turned sounds into words and diverted into hundreds of languages. we domesticated animals and experimented with herbs. we placed pyramids like sandcastles (and i suppose they are) and we cultivated power. we founded the production belt and split the atom. we made it home.

“here’s your earth, now live in it.”

and so we did. our cities pulsated with electricity, powered by science and mathematics. our hearts beat to rhythms of poetry and music, the wordful and wordless. our eyes captivated by pictures and sculptures, both moving and stationary. we filled it with everything we knew: blossoms and wilts, beauty and suffering, life and death.

“here’s your home, now love it.”

and so we did. but too much love is a bad thing, they just don’t teach you that in school. we love our earth so much that we want to live on it forever. so we begin by trying to make ourselves live forever, make ourselves live up to the expectation of strangers, make ourselves live up to what the billboards portray. some wanted quick and easy so they dumped all the slow and arduous into the skies and oceans. some wanted to be feared and adored so they swapped eyes for coins and politicized everything. some wanted more than the earth so they shot robots and rockets into space, a catastrophe, for why destroy another planet like we’re doing ours?

you can’t love your home—no matter where it resides—if you’re selfish. that we are. if the world were listening, i would ask a singular question—why do we live as if some greater being is screaming into our ears and choke-holding our very living essence, saying:

“melt the ice caps and endanger the species. boil the oceans and burn the amazon. deforest acres that natives live in. create systems that don’t protect the people. allow the blue to spill red. build correctional camps and force people to denounce beliefs, identities, and religions. weaponize extremists and allow them to take lands. permit hermit kingdoms to sever connections with the outside world. separate immigrant families by barbed wires. leave the children parentless. let rapists and predators walk in broad daylight unscathed. tell women what they can and cannot be, wear, say, do. dismiss cases of sweatshop injuries and deaths. criminalize mental health and suicide cases. declare pride illegal, stay in your goddamn closets, don’t dishonor the family. religion says this, religion says that. tank tops are distracting, as well as mini skirts. power cuts, power gains. politicize this, politicize that. money smells best when it isn’t yours. so exploit the workers and ban union formations. who will they tell? who will believe them? have them argue whether that in a womb is a ball of cells or a living person. arrest peaceful protestors, tase those who bear non-white skins. overpolice non-white neighborhoods. fetishize the east, steal their culture, westernize it. allow guns then cry when students exhale their last breaths. and when the vigils are held, send the police to break them up. sell makeup but then call those who wear it liars. have dystopian writers but don’t tell the world that’s where we’re headed. don’t let women drive, don’t let them go to school. put old men in power, they’ll do the job. cut taxes for the rich and pressure the poor. our mission is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. set unrealistic standards and make the internet addictive. offer everything and absolutely everything, but never for free, always leave a catch. make them anxious, depressed, never enough. she’s better and he’s prettier, what even are you? religion is a business, a political weapon, use it to get the mobs under control. colonize, colonize, mobilize, mobilize. make the weapons, both tangibles and intangibles. manufacture the medicine but make it both enslaving and expensive. create industries that objectify women then ring the bell of shame. cuff the young, they’re danger, dangerous. spy on the people, leave loopholes to make it legal, privacy doesn’t exist here. conflate morality with legality. test products on animals then hunt them for fun. take five years to pass a law that protects the people. offer loans then make them impossible to pay back. evict people without prior notice. rig the elections. pedestalize presidents and prime ministers. put the country’s finances in the hands of corruption. complicate voters registration and then the voting process. come up with absurd terms like ‘gerrymandering’. make people so hopeless that they start digging their own graves, but don’t forget to put a price tag on the coffins and shovels. cancel the innocent but never hold those in power accountable. undermine artists and athletes but use them for endorsements all the time. exclusive this, exclusive that. pay for premium, pay to fit in. but we want you to stand out. uniqueness is what is adored. your ordinary means nothing. double standard all the industries. keep the people numb, show them advertisements. make them work, work, work so they can buy, buy, buy into a false reality. all information is confidential. we might as well be living in a simulation. and what would you know? what would you know? don’t you love it—being numb, pretty, wealthy, and loved?”

people are dying, dying.
our earth is dying, dying.
but what do we care?
we just want to get what we deserve!

and so we did.

so

we

did.