Attract
Location
Speaking over the drone of decorative fountain water,
a happy couple holding hands tells a stranger:
"Opposites attract".
But the two are both white
both happy
both magnets following the laws of science.
They're privileged enough to speak compliance,
like children forcing two negatively charged magnets
into a non-consensual touch.
Sameness attracts when a cop's black gun shoots a gunless black body
or when a country responds to Pearl Harbor with Nagasaki,
or when pop culture blames corruption on the Illuminati.
Hate is a uniform understanding that people can be ranked on a scale from Bad to Good,
that Good is safety and Bad is hood,
that hoodies over heads more often end up dead
and the killers are seldom caught with their hands painted red.
All I want is the chance to touch an opposite
but it will never happen if our souls keep killing from triggers
that all recoil the same when pulled,
the same feeble resistance from every kidnapped gun
with no say in where it's aimed.
Every blood drop spills the same
on every sidewalk stained dark in shame.
So we have to beat hate at its own game.
Be the same.
Stand side by side along horizon walls,
don't retreat when human nature calls,
march from neighborhoods to Capitol halls
and cry out "We will not stand for it."
You have never been a means to an end.
Defend the rights of all so society can mend.
Pretend every assassin is a friend
and make them shoot the love right out of you.
The only cosmic difference between people could be violence
and very few of us -
the Bad on the hate scale, I guess -
are attracted to that.