A citizen mother and child
are separated and detained
for hours, for speaking Spanish
in a public park.
That could have been me.
A researcher complained
over text about the suicidal
destruction of science and got
deported without saying a word.
That could have been me.
A protesting priest
holds up his hands in supplication
and takes a pepper ball
to the head.
That could have been me.
Activists are threatened
with arrest for shouting legal defense
strategy to migrants as they
are disappeared.
That could have been me.
The undesirables and degenerates are made
to register themselves. Hundreds,
thousands, who could have passed for fash
put themselves on every list.
That could have been me.
People hide their neighbors
in attics for days, for months, for years.
Some are caught and unpersoned, but
the rest are an ark of community.
That could have been me.
All the citizens are rounded up in the square.
Who threw the sabot into the machine?
the men with guns bleat at us.
I raise my hand, as do we all. We say –
That could have been me.