Thursday, April 20, 2023

Us Against the World

Us Against the World

Those were the days

of us against the world!

Fighting for living wages, healthcare,

inclusion, dignity.

With the stakes higher,

the implications of our failure

reverberated wider than others’,

we Thrived!

 

Exhausted at the end

of our day,

but we stayed up late,

partied, discussed things

the truly mattered.

 

We were on top

of the World!

We started young,

fresh faced, full of hope

and the ‘knowledge’ that

if we just spread our message

and got others to follow

in our footsteps

we would absolutely

change our world!

 

We grew up on this road,

on the road. Older then,

our resolve steadfast,

a calm resolve,

that we did

Still Mattered.

 

And lights faded

on our time at the helm,

we welcomed a new generation

of activists.

We passed the torch

and grieved for what

we were not able to

accomplish, to change.

 

Some days

it still weighs on me.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

The Cause

The Cause

 

Twelve-plus hours a day

seven days a week

of organizing, pushing, leading.

No rest for us,

but we didn’t care.

The cause was greater.

 

Alienation from friends, families.

Missing birthdays, baby and wedding showers,

times just making memories

because our calling was more

than to just be passive activists.

  

“Why aren’t you doing more?

You can knock doors,

make phone calls,

attend rallies!

Why aren’t you doing enough?”

These thoughts streamed through our brains

when someone wished up luck,

said we have their support,

said they had our backs.

 

Feelings of failure.

“If I had only done this…

then we would have won,

we most surely would have

saved lives.”

The implications of our failures

were greater than others’

as we saved strangers’

livelihoods, health, access to compassionate care.


No time to

be human.

We went ‘home’

(even though where we laid our heads

was never actually home),

ingested drugs,

fell into chaotic sleeps.

 

We couldn’t be our true selves,

as our lives belonged to

the cause.

 

We faltered

landed harshly.

We wanted to scream,

“I am only just

a human!”

But to what? The cause?

 

We deserved rest,

but we didn’t realize it

until after

the burnout.


***


Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Katie/Kate

 

Katie/Kate

 

I value realness, rawness, truthfulness

and tend not to trust

those who I feel are inauthentic.

 

Recently, I started tagging my art,

poetry, photography, and writing

under a moniker/penname/pseudo-name.

 

(In 2008 I looked up

“Katie Dixon” on Facebook,

 and found nearly 600 more mes.)

 

Veiling myself under a new name

has given me strength in the past,

almost like a superhero’s cloak.

But putting everything under

this other name

has almost made me feel like I’m

hiding

under

it.

 

Can I authentic,

can I be real,

if I’m not Katie Dixon?

Or will Kate Solo bring

out the artist

that I desperately hope to be?


Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Vulture Raid S/T EP - Review

This is a review I wrote of a new band's debut EP.


Vulture Raid – S/T EP

 

Vulture Raid’s debut EP opens with a soulful piano solo before launching into a banging punk rock tune, complete with an Anti-Flag-esque lead guitar. When Oscar Capps IV comes in on vocals he sounds harder, rougher, and older than he did on his former band’s album, roughly 2.5 years prior. He sounds like someone who has gone through some stuff, which he has. He has you singing along with the chorus by the second time around.

 

The rest of this album stays hard, fast, honest, and raw. It comes off as a very personal collection of songs, yet it speaks to some universal truths. The lines, “I am not your enemy/ You made me your enemy/ I don’t have time for enemies” are some of my favorites.

In just five years Oscar IV has gone from recording his first EP, containing a song titled “No Decaf,” to songs about taking life on headfirst. Only time will tell where Vulture Raid goes from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s far and wide.

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After (Some) Time Has Passed


After (Some) Time Has Passed

It’s almost fun to look back

at trinkets, work books, photos

after (some) time has passed.

After the sorrow has melted

the feelings of failure fade

and I can see those memories

as things that have shaped me,

instead of things that have left me

un-whole.

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Back Of the Bar... But...

Back Of the Bar…
But…

 

As I get older,

I am more apt to stand at the back

of the bar/venue/crowd

taking in the scene of

a (punk) band and their audience.

 

But there are times in which

I still feel the need

to be on the barricade,

screaming lyrics back

to the band at whose feet

I reside.

 

But sometimes I want to relive

my youth and bounce around

in the pit, rolling upright over

various body parts of others,

falling but never hitting the ground.

 

I feel alive, revived

after a night of

music, comradery,

and ultimately, love.

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Set List Poems

 I call these 'Set List Poems.' I take a band's song catalog and use their song titles to create a sort-of found poem. The title of each poem is the band that each poem is derived from. (I did have to sprinkle a few words in just a few places to make them make any sort of sense.)


The Briggs

 

Control Alt-Right

delete.

I’m back to higher ground.

 

Third World War,

gridlocked,

on the Devil’s Playground

until someone gets hurt,

broken bones.

 

It’s harder to stand.

Panic!

 

What was I thinking?

It’s not all on me.

Keep us alive,

believe.

 

It won’t take long

as we charge

into the sun.


---


Ducky Boys

 

The ballad of the forgotten,

you sing the chorus

‘til the wheel fall off.

 

Another day

of me against the world.

I guess I’m broken,

but you can’t break me.

 

Bombs away,

celebrate,

disappear.

 

I was intoxicated.

Wait, I lied,

I’m feeling alive.


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