Confirmation Bias

at least in our waking life
              most commemoration

doubles as force

              since even
              the most benign

zodiacal conceptions
             are tinged eurocentric

when brown women die
who specifically is responsible

               for the eroticization
                           of our deaths?

this is not a walking
             meditation

not an endorsement
             of escape

survivalism
             or even

getting to the source

with eyes closed
              involve yourself

              with the idea
of becoming thematized

                            in dreams
              that feel multiplayer

wearing cling wrap for clothing—
            seldom (never) passing

            white

learn to chase dopamine
in the absence of halos

all with lollipops
all stevia all
sugar all
candy

             yes
the new sincerity
is post-Sephora

              find an out

notice what you feel
when your phone
reaches out
for you

notice this as paradise

notice paradise
as antithetical
to force

notice force
as the catalyst

               for everyone
               you’ve ever
               loved

leaving

                remember
that you once watched

                 someone you love
try to light their cigarette

with a usb stick

                  and did nothing
                  to intervene

following this memory
you’ve learned to triple check

fire sources and their
adjacent damage

                  if you set an object on fire in the poem
                  the poem rewards you by becoming deep

                  if you set yourself on fire in the poem
                  the poem rewards you for becoming the light

                  when you become the light
                  the poem says:

                  ok
                  good job

                  you’ve become

                              the light.