Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Please respond the following questions with a number on a scale from one to five (one being least agree and five being most agree).

1. You would turn in your neighbor, should he be revealed to be an undocumented immigrant.
1 2 3 4 5

2. You would spit on him as he’s dragged from his house, his wife and child screaming after him as cops beat him over the head with batons.
1 2 3 4 5

3. You would visit the courthouse, sit in the gallery as a judge determines he should return to his home country where a violent gang or a corrupt government or a life of poverty or disease awaits.
1 2 3 4 5

4. You would take his job, his house, his wife and kid.
1 2 3 4 5

5. You would fill the space where he once stood with your warm body, gorging yourself on fortune and opportunity.
1 2 3 4 5

6. You would never hear about his death in the paper, in person, online. He doesn’t count to you. His life and death are meaningless.
1 2 3 4 5

7. It’s every man for himself out here. He would do the same to you.
1 2 3 4 5

8. He would.
1 2 3 4 5

9. He would.
1 2 3 4 5

10. He would.
1 2 3 4 5

11. You don’t hear howling in the night. You don’t hear orphans in the wind.
1 2 3 4 5

12. You don’t see blood on the kitchen counter, the bathroom sink, the stairs.
1 2 3 4 5

13. You don’t feel phantom limbs wrapped around your throat.
1 2 3 4 5

14. His wife is gone. Kid too.
1 2 3 4 5

15. They died a long time ago.
1 2 3 4 5

16. Your job lets you go for a cheaper option—this time, a citizen.
1 2 3 4 5

17. So this was all for nothing.
1 2 3 4 5

18. For nothing.
1 2 3 4 5

19. For nothing.
1 2 3 4 5

20. Do you feel safer now? More vindicated?
1 2 3 4 5

21. Was it worth it?
1 2 3 4 5

22. Do you feel like a big man now?
1 2 3 4 5

23. Are you more loved?
1 2 3 4 5

24. Smarter? More fulfilled?
1 2 3 4 5

25. This is all your fault.
1 2 3 4 5

26. You didn’t mean for this to happen.
1 2 3 4 5

27. Or did you?
1 2 3 4 5