THE UNITED STATES OF ANXIETY (RED, BLUE AND WHITE)

GAS: Poetry, Art & Music, 2023

RED

Pity the nation that ignores its mental health.

Giving itself only two choices, the United States of Anxiety has grown used to its anger. The cooing of kittens and tie-wearing newscasters will do nothing to stall another attack. The fiction of throwing away good laws to get back to a long gone past leads to a reality of diseased thinking that has invaded the present and is spreading quickly. Take the red pill! Take the red pill! Take a dozen. Maybe that will save you.

BLUE

Pity the nation that thrives on ordering take out.

Reading feeds on your phone, checking in with friends is not the same as being informed. The protections promised by college degrees, starting salaries and vacation time are gone. The clubs you wanted to be a part of are as isolating as any place deep in the woods where people want to know what you know about staying alive, not what you do, who you know. Take the blue pill! Take the blue pill! But just one or two or you’ll get addicted, hug trees.

WHITE

Pity the nation that cannot surrender.

Crying for peace is like praying for bullets to stop their killing; it’s all they know to do.The moment we forget how connected we each are is when we lose the only control we have. The real place of safety in this modern life is in ourselves, in each other, not in our colors,not in our preferences, not in getting things right, not in making anyone else understand. Wave the white flag! Wave it high! Give up hope of anyone coming along to make you feel okay.