Begging for money

on the internet

Passing around the same

20 to 60 dollars

around the same half dozen

friends

I cry in bed at night

This isn’t the world

afternoon cartoons promised me

My friends get their

heads cracked in

on the streets of every major city

When they say

Black Lives Matter

Free Palestine

Trans Lives Matter

On their college campuses

crying that

genocide is wrong

and asking

where does the tuition money go?

We pick up scraps

and share crumbs among ourselves

We scavenge for something better

but keep coming up empty

On the off chance

we find something more

than nothing

it gets taken

or mysteriously goes missing

We’re all so tired

and angry

and solidarity doesn’t pay the rent

It doesn’t buy the groceries

and it doesn’t keep the lights on

Four easy payments

for life necessities

brought to you by Klarna

Utility payment plans

in collaboration with Affirm

We scramble

job to job

gig to gig

class to class

unsure if/when we’ll lose it
Have comfort snatched

from under us

before we’re even issued

a company T-shirt

made in Vietnam

Here we are

begging for money

on the internet

Passing around the same

20 to 60 dollars

Sometimes we look up

and ask

Where are the people with

stability

with money

with no concern?

We see them with

nicely printed signs

at the protests and marches

We wonder

how some of us struggle so much

When they’re

right there

Chanting alongside us

but refusing to acknowledge

how much power

they hold in their own hands

Pretending all power

is some abstract, distant,

intangible, something

that stops at the polls

They donate to campaigns

that will fight against us

and fund genocide

Thousands, hundred thousands

into their bank accounts

while we’re here

begging for money on the internet

Passing around the same

20 to 60 dollars