…the council has decreed

you are guilty of your crimes;

there is a national shortage of empathy,

the milk of human kindness has turned sour,

and the lemons life has offered you are actually

grenades we painted yellow –

still, we have decided that you’re

responsible for the collateral damage

of your death, and when you’re buried

we’ll decide the name on your headstone,

and brand the soil with

the pronouns we gave you

and don’t believe in anyway.