Final Call

This is the final call for flight
twenty-two twenty-two.
Please make your way to gate 5A
where you’ll be barricaded by police.
Where you might be suffocated
by a knee on your neck.
Protest against police brutality
and pay for a ticket to political upheaval.
When no one listens,
when innocent citizens are murdered,
then no one gets to fly on the plane.
When peaceful protests stop working,
violent protests take prominence.
Looting and setting fires become
the way to providence.
As you board the place,
set it on fire.
As we depart, prepare for ascension,
and listen listen listen to the passengers
on this third planet from the sun.

Alexander P Garza is a Mexican-American poet from Houston. His work has appeared in Toyon, Indianapolis Review, Dissections, Star*Line, and others. He is a graduate student in the Program for Writers at University of Illinois — Chicago. Visit him on Instagram/Twitter (@alexanderpgarza) and his website.