stevie redwood

LUMPS

And so I,
a watchful bitch,
I looked
and I saw

the best minds of my generation
doxxed by zionists

I saw the best minds of my generation at the coffee shop
taking their tips and lumps and licking
their wounds behind the counter

I saw the best minds of my generation
drowned in foam art + artificial sweetness

I saw the best minds of my generation work
four jobs for rent

I saw the fiercest spirits of my generation
get religious
about materialism
and agnostic
about god

I saw the best minds of my generation crack up
get broken
go broke

I saw the best minds of my generation
crowdfund for their healthcare

I saw the best minds of my generation smoke a pack a day
as harm reduction

I saw the best minds of my generation using
food stamps on cold meals from the supermarket deli
to feed the neighborhood

I saw the best minds of my generation wasted
on circlejerk “organizing”
before finding their people
their place

I saw the best minds of my generation sometimes
fuck each other
sometimes
fuck each other over

I saw the best minds of my generation fuck up
fascists
outside the courthouse
at the hotel
on campus
after campus

I saw the best minds of my generation burn down
the third precinct
the weapons factory
the Wendy’s

I saw the best minds of my generation do some shit
I can’t write about here
allegedly
meaning
I saw nothing

I saw the best minds of my generation
quit school
so they could learn

I saw the best minds of my generation refuse
+ refuse
+ refuse

I saw the best minds of my generation harangued by wage labor
and still move their bodies toward the streets

I saw the best generations of my mind harangued by wage labor
all the way outta the workforce

I saw the best minds of my generation get COVID at work
again
and again
and again

I saw the best minds of my generation
on Lexapro
Lorazepam
Lithium
Latuda
Wellbutrin
or not

I saw the most committed minds of our generations
committed
hunted down and locked up
on trumped-up charges
saw them “commit” “suicide”
shot in the head
no assassination note

I saw the best minds of our generation get high
get low
get thru
sometimes

I saw the best minds of my generation watch the watchers
like all our lives depended on it

I saw the best minds of our generations get real fuckin weird
get odd
get even

I saw the best minds of my generation see the writing on the wall
and redecorate it

I saw the best minds of my generation live
and die
and die
and die
and live

I saw the best minds of my generation fall apart
and stitch each other up

and start again

stevie redwood is a disabled toisanese jewish neuroinsurgent introvert homotrash littledreamer bigmouth bitch living & dying in frisco / on Ramaytush Ohlone land. they’re unimpressed by scene queers, artifice, & pacifism. they’re fond of shittalk, porchsitting, leaflitter, & riffraff. they dream (of) a liberated palestine, maps without borders, and a different end of the world.