I am required to resist the distractions and the easy wine
that facilitates the annihilation of the other
and their daily bread
To resist dabbling in the spoils, especially
because the world has been hard.
To do away with the thought
that somehow I am owed
To carry the weight in everything we do,
that there is nothing left to normalize
and we have given up any right to peace
and contentment every time we pay the tax
that allows for our lives,
our own lives to consider
only our own lives
Copyright © 2025 by Raquel Gutiérrez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 19, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
