we the wolfmen

listen: there is a reason for the howling. we growl because it’s the only way we are heard. we are only listened to when we bare our teeth and break skin, and even then we are only met with a mere moment of attention before you twist the dial up on the radio and change the channel so our cries are out of range. you make us white noise, we raise our voice, and so it goes.

listen: very few of us still have our voices. most of our vocal cords have been plucked from our larynges, skinned, cooked, and chewed right off the bone. hear them smack their lips as they strip us of all that we have. we have nothing.

listen: we tried to be gentle. we tried to shake hands with the system and instead we wiped its spit off our wet cheeks. we retracted our claws, and our lion hearts were led to hope like sheep to slaughter. they invited us to dinner and served us our sisters on the plates, used our flag as a communal napkin to wipe their greasy mouths, toasted our blood in flutes of champagne. after dinner, they walked us out, exiled us from their backyard, their fields, their states, their oceans. they gave us a gallon of gasoline and a lighter and said goodbye.

listen: we must go out snarling. we will sleep in the crackles of the static, crouch and hold our breath between the waves and currents, bathe in electricity until we are ready to wage a lightning war. heart, kidney, sternum. we will never strike the same place twice. see our blitzkrieg socking streets near you. watch the sidewalks bleed pepper spray and tear gas.

listen: these actions cannot echo any longer. repetition rubs shoulders with insanity, and history herself cannot survive another night of close quarters. we have grieved so much for our brothers that we do not have enough energy to mourn for ourselves. there is a reason for the howling. we are only wolves when we have to be.

listen: they want us extinct. we understand this confuses you. we understand that to you, this word has no meaning. we understand you cannot feel the magnitude of this earthquake.

listen: you have never been trapped so you do not know the muzzle, you do not recognize the confinements of the cage.