well-adjusted

griffin epstein

 

it’s the logic of coffee enemas
the arbitrary line between medicine and drug
it’s your roommate’s girlfriend spilling from the house
clutching the diet she calls proof
it’s the health food-to-fascist pipeline
the social worker-to-fascist pipeline
the PTA-to-fascist pipeline
it’s people you thought you could count on
tearing off their masks
it’s the way no one blinks when your manager
hires a manager of change management
to AI generate the land acknowledgment
it’s your rapist ex posting on Facebook
that he has regrets but not apologies
it’s your so-called chosen family
falling hard into the nuclear form
and you can’t corral your judgment
and you can’t contain your grief
it’s your love pouring into the toilet
it’s the fact of it: that everything
touches everything
so we need everything for everyone
it’s how their faces change
when you talk this way

griffin epstein (they/them) is a poet, musician, and educator living uninvited on Indigenous land in Tkaronto (Dish with One Spoon). They are the author of the chapbook “so we may be fed” (Frog Hollow Press) and a member of the Biophilia Collective. Their poetry has appeared in new words (press), CV2, The Maynard, Plenitude, and Muzzle. They play in LOST UNIT and SPOILS and believe in harm reduction, disability justice, and a free Palestine. https://griffinepstein.com/ 

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