Say

now oppressive forms of dominance impose a new authority,

through deference, expressed as gratitude to privilege that’s now eschewed (as if the right to speak of suffering is shed once the gift of comfort’s left ) bereft of voice or words for pain, in a silence justified by faintly concealed karmic lies, born of borrowings retained, bound in language,

they also underline now every cry denied each life’s last final rite of breath to say

I am, today.