i can't breathe

it's the beginning of july...unofficial first heat wave...lack of deodorant on the subways...no air conditioning in the stations...and i can't breathe...isis is shitting on the world...america is a powder keg about to blow...police shooting civilians...civilians shooting police...in one of the most gun-friendly states...food for thought...but mostly just profound sadness...when i close my eyes...i am a child again...no social media...no immediacy...sanitized news for the most part...the newspaper or walter cronkite...black and white...but the images...the riots...the anger...it remains to this day indelible...and it haunts me these days...and ironically i am craving that black and white set...i don't want a minute by minute update on my phone...i don't want to read the tweets of celebrities who need to crack a book once in a while...and listen to something other than the sound of their own voices...politicians...who need to self-edit and rethink their hiring process...i want the assault on my senses to stop...want to put this country on pause...we are so efficiently doing the job for terrorists...pointing the gun, as it were, at our own heads...maybe this weekend...turn it all off...hug your family and friends...and pray to whatever it is you hold most sacred and holy...pray that you can rise above this...that we can rise above this...so that we can breathe