after the last election
when trump won some people canceled dinners
ordered donuts and pizzas to work for comfort
went home early
said they needed some time to grieve
cry heal

and then a bubble was created
in which it seemed that trump was an anomaly
not a symptom
like if severe internal bleeding was diagnosed as just that
not metastatic stage four cancer

this election
if trump loses it’s widely alleged everyone’s back to brunch
whoever wins, i’ll feel like grieving
both are monsters rapists racists corrupt warmongers
i won’t grieve
what is the use

thankfully i don’t do dinners often or brunch ever
there’s nothing to cancel
and i wouldn’t
i don’t feel like i have that upper hand and frankly it seems rude

besides, the world is vast
does one brunch fit all?
slaves sold in the markets of libya after hillary came and saw
they don’t do brunch
pakistani children terrified of blue skies
(blue skies are when drones fly)
they don’t do brunch

iraqi children born without mouths don’t do brunch
too often they also don’t have stomachs
yemenis under blockade
don’t do brunch
it’s kind of hard to do brunch in a famine

palestinians also won’t do brunch
the manakish the oranges the hummous
the land and the lives have been stolen
to be served during brunch at the fancy israeli place in brooklyn in a building owned by the kushners
is brunch the ultimate imperialist meal?

i’m russian
i really don’t like brunch
i like breakfast for breakfast and lunch for lunch
yet i keep hearing that my country is responsible for whatever is wrong with this country
when it’s kind of the opposite

hackers election putin golden showers
i’ve been hearing this for years now
“what can you say about russian interference?”
one of the questions i’d be asked at job interviews
a little circus act before being rejected

it’s cold in the cold war
and you get cold even if you’re russian unlike what many seem to think
as you bike beneath an ad that says
vote because russian lessons are expensive
(actual russian tutors groan: if only)

but the funny thing is
russiagate, the alleged interference, everything
have been disproved
and the final reveal came recently
apparently steele got the hacking stuff from a russian woman in cyprus

a disgruntled employee of a web company
what you’d call an unreliable narrator
seems she made it all up to mess with her ex boss
and messed with all the world’s bosses

i remember her
she used to have a popular blog
on livejournal when it was a big thing in russia
named after a latin american dance, milonga
she’s well known to anyone who’s anyone in moscow
and most importantly, she’s my ex’s ex

a man i dated in mid-00s as a college student
who introduced me to mike patton and aqua teen hunger force and katamari
& next to whom i fainted high on hash and drunk on vodka as another dude played the residents on the piano
so this ex of mine, he dated her a couple years prior

and it only makes sense that out of all this
the inebriated stupor of new neoliberal russia
a patsy like the world has never seen was born
yes russian interference
a woman taking you guys for a piss so you could then scapegoat her

and the whole america drinks the kool aid laced with lsd
spends time on getting the cheeto out
on impeachment
instead of standing with the suffering
not just standing behind a corpse and a cop funded by corporate money
how’s that for brunch?
a psyop like the good old mk ultra

katamari i mentioned above is a very fun japanese game
you’re supposed to be this tiny person with a sticky ball
and you go around making things stick to your ball
until it’s absolutely gigantic
you start with paper clips erasers loose change candies
grow to food home objects

then pets children adults furniture
cows elephants trees electric poles
all the infrastructure
boulders mountains
and that’s a good metaphor for the american ego
the yearning for brunch is so intense that everything else just feeds into it

will brunch heal the traumas that formed blm (being drunk in the street: how much more likely is a Black person to be arrested?)
will brunch get the Indigenous ppl out of reservations (did you even know there’s a Native American candidate running?)

will brunch break the cages that contain children (are they invited?)
will brunch heal poverty?
covid-19?
will brunch reindustrialize?
or pay for insulin?
will brunch house the homeless?
stop surveillance?
will brunch do anything for anyone except for those who ordered it?

in america i learned about the concept of self-care
it’s a good thing, that you need to take time off and reflect
lick your wounds prepare for struggle
but somehow the only people i see doing self care are those who don’t pair it with self-work

so some are busy working while others are busy caring
about themselves
brunch is the ultimate form of self care
it allows to put the world on hold as we get drunk at a time when other people are working
bringing us pitchers of margaritas and bloody maries

do you think they like brunch, too?
will they have brunch once biden is president?
will they get real wages or still rely on bad tips because we’re poor and they’re poor but someone has to pay for this labor
(just not the capitalists)

every time there is an infringement of rights
those who are away from brunch threaten to burn things down
they don’t, leaving it to those who have nothing else to lose
because if you burn things down
where will you have brunch then?

that gif from hood documentary where the guy knocks a finger against his forehead
haha smart

there are so many words thrown around to fill up the vacuum around us
let me throw something out, too

international working class solidarity
is not scrumptious
it doesn’t come with a side of home fries
doesn’t have waffles or bacon or a fancy new kind of latte
isn’t as instagrammable
but it really does change the world
maybe let’s skip brunch and try that?

it’s not as easy as sweeping stuff under the rug like nothing happened
it’s not as easy as pretending a war machine is a toy truck
it's not easy but it’s warm
we can warm ourselves in the cold war & the nuclear autumn
there are so many books to read
so many friends to make abroad

and if you get hungry, you can always eat the presidential candidates
although one probably tastes like old lard
and the other like expired jerky
idk put hot sauce on it hillary probably has some

skip brunch
read marx