Inordinary Times
Ordinary Times We know. Not because anyone told us. Not because a messenger came. Not because the ending was written, or sealed inside a holy decree. But because we have endured empire Long enough to know the shape of its shadow. The order. The surveillance. The appetite We know what happens; Not always under the same accusation, But always public, Punitive, a spectacle, sinking us , Into compliance. We call this The last ordinary Saturday, But normal was taken from us long ago. Before the watching. Before the measuring. This is just another day under empire And still We gather We keep our hands busy. As if tending could stall the sentence. As if devotion could dull command. As if care could reach the body, Before empire does. We register the heaviness already on our shoulders, The weight already pressing into our bodies, The way we look at each other Like we are memorizing our faces, and We know because we have always had to know What it is to be watched To be weighed To be foun...