CLIQUE
Sound bites
Snap shots
Snapchat
We summarize one another
Instantly
With laser precision
So graphic
To pin one another
On X
Life in caricature
Neighbors by category
Left
Right
White
(Is she my neighbor
After that visa oversight?)
“Who are you?”
We ask
Barely listening
For a reply—
We simply need
A label—
Membership applies
“You are not like us!”
We insist
Too liberal
Too CIS
So many colors
Can’t coexist
“Do you live by our creed?”
Assimilation is required
If only, like a drug
To soothe our need—
A tribe
A band of brothers
Becomes our high
But is it brotherhood
Or is the bond
A brand
We seek to blaze
Regardless
Of the scar it makes?
Kathryn Yingst
10.04.25