I am in the middle of a shit storm without a scrap of toilet paper
Trans and token and barely tolerated in Texas,
Though way past school-age
The news these past few days like a Jerry Springer marathon on one topic
Unhinged angry-faced bullies, Rainbow hearts and brave allies
Accusations and absurdities fly around the room like spitballs
All about who can do what where in the bathrooms at school
We all gotta pee, it’s a commonality
In history, predictably, there’s always the backlash
Every tortured step forward in civil rights progression towards equality, humanity
Is met with tragedy
From battered Medgar Evers’ body
And Billie Holiday’s strange hangin’ fruit
To secret sailors flung overboard at sea and
Harvey Milk gunned down for being gay
How many years of little white signs on Bathrooms, drinking fountains, busses
Throughout the taciturn South
That said that to share this American life as equal citizens
Was to be contaminated
Those thugs worried about safety, too
They were protecting Southern womanhood by killing four little girls at church
What a load of crap, a tsunami of filth
A backed-up toilet of ignorance, no less dangerous
For its lack of common sense
But here’s the clincher
We all have skin in this game
No matter what color you are
We all gotta pee, it’s a commonality
and just like those wily old Nazis
Who knew to go for the edges, then cut to the middle
If they can make laws shaming and blaming and curtailing the rights
Of people like me, now
Then they can make a law stick to your sore spot, too
It’s all about power and precedent,
And really, we all gotta pee
That’s just human
2016