heat flow

this is the tribal mind rising

the calls ringing out in text messages and news alerts and emails

“which side are you on, which side are you on!”

what once was a neighborhood, a borough, a community, a nation

now’s only tribe

and tribe connecting to tribe on social media

as humanity splinters

as common value and common belief gets dissected into tiny pieces

with knives of demographics and thumb drives of polling data

so no leader has vision strong enough to stitch us back together

this is the tribal mind rising

opinions served as facts

self obsession confused as self expression

on the same social media platforms where

we share beautiful pictures of our newborns, our fur babies, our vacations

we curse and disparage and harass and insult and condemn

how powerful it feels to share examples of the goodness in our lives in one post

while in the next we say fuck that other tribe fuck them all they’re goin down

that other tribe who lives in a far away city in a far away place

across the state, across town, across the river, across the street

who lives right next door across the hall

across the living room in the 4K screens

in our heads

this is the tribal mind rising

every day driving a sick margin call on our mental health

what if i can’t back up that smile in my selfie

with enough happiness

our social lives coupled now to the overactive immune system of social media

an immune system prone to tripping out and being played

chasing the ghosts of false information, of doubt, of human weakness

to a place in our lives

to a place in the daily life of America

to a place in this world

that’s as lost as a worthless rumor

this is the tribal mind rising

faintly in the background of billions of little glowing screens

the multi-million dollar fees wired to offshore accounts

of ex-military intelligence influence peddlers

whose pre-election psy-ops campaigns nestle amongst the pictures

of our puppies, our weddings, our friends

while unseen amongst the trillions of packets

flowing through millions of routers every day

the gigantic shit-eating grins

on the faces of generals and ministers and presidents in Russia

the pats on the backs for the boys at the GRU

who have found the buttons to push

the buttons to just hold down

this is the tribal mind rising

as we tap and post and comment and swipe

our unwitting thumbs pounding American wedges

into American cracks

doing the damage for our adversaries with one post

sharing cookie recipes with our families the next