untitled
12.4.25
There will never be museums to us.
They will not write our names in bold
black text on white, or underlined,
a birth year and a death year, and
an artist's statement.
We will not even get a gravestone.
Cemeteries are filling up, and these days
more and more of us are burned, until
a plaque that soaks up rain and warps,
until that's gone as well, and ash
isn't of use to anyone.
Maybe, I hope, my friends will say my name.
Maybe, I pray to Someone, it won't —
Worse, they open a museum.
I'd picket every night, throw soup
on paintings, steal magnets from
the gift shop, try to set the place
on fire with cigarette butts, start
a fight with anyone I hear say,
"This piece is so important," bloody-
nosed and crying, passing out
in front of photographs you took.
I never did enough.
Museums are a weapon, meant
to kill us twice.