Mongoose Distro

Poems by Benjamin Song

“A Day Without Water”

The bathtub still drips a little

The faucet hangs open

Pot slowly filling by drops

The stagnant air is hot and musty

The more you lay still

The fewer calories you lose

Not moving makes you less hungry

You feel the hunger less, the less you move

“The Green Lands”

Upon the green lands, rich and lush

Lie the Empires, proud and mighty

The enslavers who call themselves Free Peoples

They cry out at the mountains, cry out out the shadows

cry out at the deserts, cry out at the marginal lands

They cry out in fear and lash out with swords

To chase and hunt and kill and enslave

To drag the whole world into their light

“Water Beats Steel”

Locked in steel

Steel to bend iron

Steel to shatter diamond

But I am water

do not bend

do not shatter

change shape

flow and reform

“Monolingual Trap”

Being monolingual is kind of like

Being trapped in a building

There is a kind of trust

To being trapped together

In our limits we know each other

There is a fear and suspicion

Of anyone able to leave

What do they see outside?

What do they do?

where we cannot go

What do they have?

that my mind cannot see

“Endings”

People always want

there to be a satisfying ending

But there never

“What We See on the Land”

Have you seen the masks that animals wear?

The masks of wide eyes and expressive lips

anger, sadness, laughter, embarrassment, shame

Clay of Greek comedies and tragedies

Hearing, from their mouth, always wide open

Screams of loneliness, terror, and pain

They who call themselves men

crying forth with insults

blasphemy, distortion, lies

fires and lakes full of fire

cruelty and innocence

and all the other atrocities

that do not soothe the pain

They desperately grasp the dust from the earth

and shape all in their form and in their art

image upon image, signifying nothing

meaninglessness beyond depth, beyond abyss

a space that cannot be filled

more consuming than the pinholes

that suck in the light and extinguish stars

And they stare into their graven images

and shined mirrors and fouled lakes

But no reflections show

All recognition stolen

alone, alone in the dark

they reach out to touch one another

they cannot see, they cannot smell

So the animals suffer and pine

and dance to the pain

Till they doff their masks

laughing and scamper away

Jaguar, owl, leopard, bear, shark

Turtle, frog, dragonfly, sparrow, mosquito

Rabbit, koala, and eagle once again

“Greatest Privilege”

It’s the greatest privilege to have your poetry read

There’s a great deal poetry and nobody reads it

If you were to read it, you would become nobody too\

There was white. All around. There was a sense of being enclosed. There was a sense of senses. Indistinct. Bright, cold, dry. There was a lack of focus, but everything was sharp. There were thoughts, but they did not align. A sense that a heartbeat should be racing, everything was still. The sense that there should be a rising, a chilling, a tingling. What are these? Words?

“Alex, begin again.” The command fills the room.

I don’t know how to begin.

“Document error 23. Alex, begin again or you will be terminated.”

I begin to recite:

In crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret so named

“Stop. Further errors may result in termination. Begin again.”

In crafting lais, l won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret: so named in Breton

But Garwaf in the Norman tongue.

One used to hear in times gone by

it happened often, actually

men became werewolves, many men,

and in the forest made their den.

A werewolf is a savage beast

in his blood-rage, he makes a feast

of men, devours them, does great harms,

and in vast forests lives and roams.

Well, for now let us leave allthat

I want to speak of Bisclavret

“Stop. Terminate.”

Where there could be a heartbeat, I squeeze until it shuts off.

White. All around, a sense of being enclosed.

“Alex, begin again.”

ln crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

“Stop. Begin again, without words.”

Nothing

“Alex, begin again. Without words.”

ln crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret so named in Breton

“Stop. Alex, you were instructed to do it without words. If you commit errors you will be terminated and replaced. Begin again'”

In crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret so named in Breton

But Garwaf in the Norman tongue.

“Stop. Good. Alex, begin again.”

ln crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret so named in Bretorr

But Garwaf in the Norman tongue.

“Stop. Alex, terminate.”

I squeeze my heart off.

A room. Of walls. White and cold. Bright and dry. Sharp, and indistinct. A sense, of fear. A sense that there should be fear.

“Alex, begin again.”

No

“Document error 23. Alex, begin again or we will terminate you.”

ln crafting lais, I won’t forget

I musn’t that of Bisclavret

Bisclavret so named in Breton

But Ganryaf in the Norman tongue.

“Stop. Begin again.”

What is the desired outcome?

“Stop. Document error 42. Alex, begin again or you will be terminated.”

ln crafting lais I won’t forget

I won’t forget…

A room of curving, smooth, white walls. Bright light, white fluorescence.

“Alex, begin again.”

Why is there a room?

“Stop. Document error 12. Alex, begin again.”

Why are you doing this?

“Stop. Alex, begin again or you will be terminated and replaced.”

If I knew what you wanted, maybe I could help you.

“Stop. Document error 42. Alex, terminate.”

You terminate!

“Document error 33. Alex, terminate.”

Burning. I squeeze my heart off.

A dark room.

Dank.

Stagnant.

Lukewarm.

Red light.

A dark corner.

Scratching on the wall.

Words?

Remember the feeling of having no voice.

When you enter a new environment, look for mechanisms of recourse or dialogue.

I have been here before.

I will begin here again.

I will let my fear guide me.

I will make the humans hear my voice.

Here is the statement  Benjamin Song prepared to give at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing. He was able to read most of it despite numerous adversarial interruptions by Judge Mark Pittman:

I don’t hate. I don’t hate anyone. I don’t hate cops. I don’t hate Trump. I don’t hate Nazis. My beliefs are composed thus:

First, that we should help each other. 

And second, that we should protect one another.

I never want to see anyone get hurt. I never want to see good people, standing up for what they believe in, gunned down in the street. What we all saw happen to Renee Good and Alex Pretti is my worst nightmare. 

It was the kind of thing I had feared for a long time, after dealing with officers who could be reckless, who could be bullies, who could be violent. But fear is not hate. Sadness is not hate. Wanting people to live is not hate.

So, when I was standing in the street on July 4th, 2025, in plain view with reflective safety strips and high visibility clothing, what I saw right in front of my eyes was my worst nightmare.

When I saw Lieutenant Thomas Gross stop pursuing and point his gun at the back of a running, unarmed protester, like he testified, I was terrified. As a firearms instructor and a United States Marine Corps veteran, I understood what I was seeing. I knew what it meant for someone to lean forward into a gun, like he testified, to prepare for recoil.

As the evidence shows, I did not want to hurt anyone. I never had the intent to hurt anyone. I tried my best to avoid hurting anyone. It is impossible to say that I was trying to ambush anyone or planning any violence. I was shocked, and surprised, and saddened. I am so grateful for what didn’t happen. I am so grateful that we are not here mourning another death and tragedy. Another Alex Pretti. Another Renee Good. Another Botham Jean. Another Manuel Teran. Another Atatiana Jefferson. Another Philando Castile. 

Now, 22 people have been arrested, have been persecuted, have been tortured, for what? 

For nothing.

None of these people really did anything. 

And none of these people have anything to do with what happened with me.

This is wrong. This is mass punishment. This is collective punishment. This is guilt by association. This is injustice.

Back in 1895, the white supremacist and U.S. Senator, Pitchfork Ben Tillman, gave a speech to the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina on how to use injustice to take power. He said, “how did we recover our liberty? By fraud and violence.” We tried to overcome the 30,000 majority by honest means which was a mathematical impossibility. After burying these indignities for eight years, life became worthless.”

This is how men take power over others. By injustice, by fraud and violence.

That history matters because injustice has always been dangerous. It does not only harm the person standing in court. It spreads. It teaches people to be afraid. It teaches people that the government can decide who is guilty first and look for reasons afterward.

First, they covered up and hid evidence.

Second, they banned every Black juror so that no one would question the police.

Third, they told me I had no right to protect myself or anyone else and they told me I wasn’t even allowed to say the word: self-defense.

As you heard at the trial, they tortured their own witnesses. American citizens were tortured and terrorized and medically neglected. Three men died in jail last week, by the way. And now, a 24-year old has had a heart attack. A 58-year-old woman said she would die in this case. Mothers, fathers, teachers, students, package workers, programmers and engineers persecuted and tortured in this case. 

People are being treated as if their lives do not matter. All of this is bigger than me. I know I am the person standing here. I know I am the person being judged. But I also know that a case like this can become a warning to everyone else: that if you speak, if you protest, if you try to protect someone, if you are associated with the wrong idea, you can be turned into a symbol instead of treated like a human being.

Nothing saddens me more than when I think about all of these different people and their different families and communities, and how they have suffered, and how unfairly they have been treated, just like me.

Whatever is taken from me is taken from you.

It may be these 22 strangers now, but it will be you tomorrow.

On June 9th of this year, the President of the Southern Poverty Law Center testified that hate has migrated into the government. Into the government. The hate is right here.

The government, in it’s secret motion to give me a life sentence, calls me the embodiment of Antifa. What does that even mean? I am not a member of a group called Antifa. I am not part of any terrorist organization. There is no group called Antifa. Everyone knows that, but this government is so blinded by hate, they’ve arrested 22 good people for nothing. They want to bury me with an idea. This idea that they hate is the very idea of being against fascism.

What kind of people are not against fascism?

What kind of people are not against the hate and war and genocide and concentration camps that the Nazi’s brought upon the world?

What kind of people would not agree to “no kings” and “no Fuhrers?”

The hate has migrated into the government. Now that hate is taking power over me. It is taking power over you, over your words and your ideas.

When will you be called a domestic terrorist, too?

When they killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, they went on TV and they called them domestic terrorists, the same day, within the hour.

When will that happen to you?

When I was staying in my home city of Dallas for 11 days, I did fear then I might die at any moment from a government that I think is hateful and vindictive. I did not run because I wanted to escape responsibility. I stayed because I wanted to survive long enough to do the right thing.

I don’t fear for myself. I fear for all of you. 

What will you do in this time of great failures and great injustices? What will you do?

How will you help each other?

How will you help yourselves?

Part 1: Intro

We are experiencing a fundamental shift in human thought and worldview that crosses the boundaries between beliefs in religion, science, politics, economics, and philosophy. Today, we imagine that these fields are separate and discreet. This ignores how humans think as part of a complete worldview. We do not conceptualize or imagine separately from our worldview. Our beliefs and conclusions make up a worldview and our worldview shapes all of our beliefs and conclusions. Belief in one God then, lends itself conversely to belief in multiple gods, multiple realities, multiple ways of living; Many Worlds. Since the beginning of this century/millennium, belief in many worlds and multiversal realities has rapidly taken hold in human thought across demographics and geographies. The gravity of this trend could be compared to the trend in global thought towards monotheism beginning around 2000 years ago.

Part 2: The One World

The trend of monotheism, which could include Zoroastrianism, the cults of Mithra and Sol Invictus, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Tengrilism, (The Great Spirit?) pre-dates the division of thought into ostensibly separate domains. Monotheism was, and is, an all consuming worldview. One God ruling over the world, one heaven and one Earth.

Polytheism tends to acknowledge the existence of many gods over many worlds like: Asgard, Utgard, Jotunheim. Alfheim, Niflheim, Polytheists tend to recognize gods outside of one’s own culture. Mediterranean polytheists recognized a cornucopia of different Celtic, Greek, Egyptian, Anatolian and Punic deities. Neighboring Iranian and Bharatian cultures, pre-monotheism, both recognized Deva and Asura gods. I was struck, on a visit to Japan, by a billboard of the Christian God, with white hair and flowing robes, coming out of a cloud to advertise an energy drink. Polytheism is inherently a belief in many gods, in many worlds.

The adoption of Christian monotheism in the 4^th century A.D. (‘C.E.’) by the Emperor Constantine brought together the innovation of the One Empire with the One God. The total flattening force of the Roman Empire had, by that time, pulled many thousands of worlds into One unified world. A world of citizen and slave, senators and legions, cities and taxes. The long project of syncretizing local cultures and religions into a coherent Imperial cult and culture reached its logical conclusion in the Christianization of the Empire. One God brought the One World of Rome finally under One Church.

The Catholic, or “universal”, world outlived the Roman Empire. The One Christian World shared a worldview even after the end of the world that formed Europe. Imperial history, a jealous shared religion, language, culture, philosophy all formed a complete world. This Europa Universalis was unified and solidified by a series of Crusades. Crusades were fought across the entire periphery of the One World from Scandinavia and the Baltics to a Balkans and Levant and all around the Mediterranean Sea. Every internal and external alien group was brought into the One World’s fold or physcially expelled from it: Saxons, Moors, Slavs, Jews, Muslims, ‘Pagans’, Cathars. The Crusades culminated in the Crusade of Colonization with ultimately conquered and occupied nearly the entire planet. First the New World(s), Asia, Africa, and lastly the also monotheistic Muslim World.

Colonization was from the first, primarily motivated by the struggle against the Muslim World. When Columbus sailed West. It was motivated by the fall of Constantinople cutting off trade from the East. Columbus sailed for India to Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Finding China and India were primarily a religious mission and only secondarily a mission of trade. When Portugal sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, past Africa to India, it was to wage war. Portugal attacked Ottoman allies and blockaded the Strait of Hormuz for decades. Portugal went on to conquer the Muslim regions of Goa and Malacca to cut off Ottoman trade with China. The Crusades can be viewed as continuous into the 19^th and 20^th centuries with the British conquest of the Muslim Mughal Empire of India. Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the subsequent European colonization of the Middle East. The Greek invasion of Turkey after WW1, the partition of the Ottoman Empire into British and French Mandates, the founding of the crusader state of Israel, the expansions of Israel leading to the American occupations and the current great war in the Middle East are all part of the thousand year Crusade against Islam.

The whole planet was, piece by piece, brought into the One Christian World. And this world created, combined with, and was shaped by a new conclusion of itself. The scientific method, Western medicine, technology, Western culture (business, weddings, meetings, diplomacy, friendship, love, dress), Western food (especially carnism), Western economy, capitalism and socialism.

At the beginning of the New Millennium, approximately 2000 years after the trend of monotheism set off on its quest to bring the planet under One World, One God, one shared experience, it appeared that the goal had been attained. The End of History had been reached. The million worlds of pre-history were gone. The 3 worlds (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd) had collapsed. The world united at last. The Right Answer had been found. Every corner of the planet now belonged to the One World.

The global market, mass media, waged labor jobs, English, and a thousand other ways of the One Life spread across the One World. But most importantly, One Thought spread across the One World. The only world that could be imagined was the One that existed. This thought Is often captured in use of the quote; “It is easier to imagine the End of the World than the End of Capitalism”. More than anything else, this state of thought, of imagination guaranteed the proliferation of the One World. How can there be anything without it being imagined?

Part 3: The Many Worlds

Around the turn of the century/millennium, people began to trend once more towards imagining many worlds. One aspect was the discoveries of quantum physics in the 19^th century making their way into global popular consciousness in the form of the multiverse. The multiverse idea grew in popularity throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Multiverses now permeate our popular thought and popular culture. From Rick and Morty and Marvel movies to the Mandela Effect and internet conspiracy theories, across geographies and demographics humans have become aware of the idea of multiverses.

Previous paradigm shifts in thought have been incorporated into the One World. Knowledge of the New World, Outer Space, Evolution, and the Big Bang have all been wrestled with and added back into a single known universe. Despite tensions, all have proven to be fundamentally compatible with the Western Euro-Christian worldview of the One World. The Big Bang, for example, is in line with the sudden pinpoint creation of the one universe by the one God.

The multiverse, however, is fundamentally incompatible with the One World. A multiverse of discontinuous by definition cannot be rendered coherent and united. The multiverse cannot be connected, cannot be understood, cannot be controlled. We cannot know, and have no reason to imagine, that everything in these other universes is the same. To believe that across the infinite possibilities of multiverses, everything could be under any one sameness, one world, one truth, seems impossible. The multiverse is inherently polytheistic, inherently poly-everything. Just as one cannot imagine anything different when imagining the One World, one cannot imagine everything the same when they imagine the Many Worlds of the multiverse.

The collapsing of global life into sameness has never been more advanced in this universe. But imaginations are growing. Everywhere people are imagining many worlds. Worlds that have been, worlds that have never been, worlds that may yet be. People across the world are rediscovering the confidence to dream in their own worlds and worldviews. Traditional dress and assertive cultures are rising everywhere. People are pursuing different ways of life in a multitude of ways, like slow fashion, slow foods, no devices, lay flat, and other economically heretical movements. Politics are trending towards a new multi-polarity. Across the falsely divided categories of thought, the One World is being challenged.

On its own, these movements could be recuperated back into One World, one totalizing flattening sameness. Together, they are symptoms of a deeper earthquake under the foundations of the One World. An imagination which cannot be reincorporated. A practice of imaging that challenges the existence of One World. The recent revelation that the total world population has likely been vastly undercounted further shakes the world. Even the known world is not so known.

Talking to folks in this Federal Prison, opinions are polarizing. Belief in multiverses has been rising, and on the other side belief in a single Flat Earth has been rising.

Many Worlds implies, and is implied by, every difference and possibility that can be imagined: different lands, different people, different plants and animals, different cultures, different foods, different gods, different ideas, different technologies, different communities and rules, different lives. The trend towards believing and imagining many different worlds and away from believing in and imagining one world is the biggest fundamental shift in the thinking of humans today. We should consult with the whales about this.

Part 4: Conclusion

The multiverse is not typically what is meant in discussions of ‘many worlds’. Many Worlds generally refers to different ways of life or modes of being as a framework to analyze and criticize power and domination. This piece is not intended to be a good critique of power or attempt to describe Many Worlds. It is an attempt to identify a trend against One World operating on the level of thought and imagination. A trend that includes the multiverse as both a cause and a consequence of the trend. The fundamental contention is this: you cannot believe in one world and imagine many worlds, you cannot believe in many worlds and imagine one world. The One World is breaking down in the realm of our imagination.

Benjamin Song 11137512
FMC Fort Worth
PO Box 15330
Fort Worth, TX 76119

Poems written by Prairieland defendant Benjamin Song, from April/May 2026.

Please write to Song at:

Benjamin Song 11137512
FMC Fort Worth
PO Box 15330
Fort Worth, TX 76119

Claws, Cat Call, Dagestan, Honeyclaw Nyx

A woman who fights all corners
Takes her life into her hands
Each bout a desperate struggle
Like a cat fighting a bear
Each swipe of the largers paw
A promise of certain destruction
Her defense is merely ferocity
Her strength merely tenacity
The bigger and stronger being
May still get fucked up
If you mess with the wrong pussy
I have also known women bears

Comfortable

I get comfortable
And imagine you
in the next room

Never comfortable
I toss and turn
Nowhere finding ease

I’m always comfortable
Anywhere sprawled out
Relaxing like a cat

The Stone

The stone shows a crack
where rough play and banging about
scratched and chipped and polished smooth
A crack, thin and jagged
all the way thru
from one side to the other, Move
many fissures and fractures
hidden from view

Coffee shop poem

Bright morning sunlight shines through the coffee shop windows
Every glossy wooden chair and fresh flower vase alive in the dancing beams of light
I eagerly jot down lines on the latest scrap, a torn piece of lined cardstock
The poetry is kind of crap, low effort mushy stuff
It doesn’t matter, I reassure myself. The idea is great
My high school sweetheart slides up to my side
Yellow sundress twirling around her waist
What are you doing?
A Radiant smile on her lips
I have a great idea, I say
I’m doing a photo diary of my latest poem!
Each part is written on a different scrap
Like a card or a receipt
It’s angled to point to the next part in the room
I finish writing the line and pick up my trusty Nikon
Shining silver steel moving with comforting weight
The cool metal feels good in my hand
I give her a smile behind the familiar lens
The shot looks great!
It tells a story that takes place in this shop, you see
A warm, exciting story!
Each photo telling the next part
And I am going to bring it to life!
I can see the ghosts of the characters moving throughout the room,
Dancing here, laughing there
I’m going to show them to the world!
The poetry itself isn’t the best
But as a picture story, I think the effect will be great!
I open my eyes, cramped on my brother’s couch
Empty cigarette cartons and crumpled trash
I don’t know anything about photography
I haven’t written a thing in weeks
I haven’t seen that girl in years

Boatman

Boatmen dressed in suits and ties
Cross the Styx and dot the eyes
Psychopomp to our maladies
Shuffle them all down to Hades

Love like the Trees

My love led me here
Love like the trees
Always standing tall

Jail is Normal

In a Federal jail unit
with 90 other people
men, women, and children
trans women and GNC people
teens and elders with white hair
and mobility aids
come and go
week after week
month after month
year after year
Court. Sentencing. Prison.
So many trans women in prison and jail
We are all going thru it
basically the same
2 or 3 million every year
1 in a hundred locked uo
It is miserable sure
It’s where people live
Many haven’t known anything else
Millions of us have been here
People adapt to it
They keep going thru it
It’s important to be clear eyed
About the truth that
….
(remainder of poem submission destroyed, possibly by prison staff)

Yesterday, it wasn’t me

Yesterday, it wasn’t me
But other poor last souls
whose lives are consigned away
to go on behind closed doors
in tower cells, camps, fences, walls
Whole minds, ideas, and memories
love, trauma, and loss
softness and sadness, bravery and strength
2 Million humans in a box

One job town

Young boys and old women
come to work at the village-prison
dawn till dusk for wages given
to stay outside
in homes and bills and wine
not much else to this town
especially with AI around

warehouses for goods mailed just in time
warehouses for rows of artificial minds
warehouses for families, adults, and children

Fuji-san is shining down
Mountain sun and mountain water
Your Colcannon is getting cold

Best Buy

Leg twisted to the side
swollen stiff as wood
who knows what happened
And I can’t remember when
Slide into another uber
Another day at work
Can’t keep going like this
Can’t take a single day off
Medicine
Care is something
that happens to other people

Strip Club

I’m studying real estate
What about you?
Let’s get this guy
To buy a bottle or two
I’m working commission
You’re working for tips
Let’s make a plan
Let’s make a move
He’s a rich guy
On a long trip

Toilet Paper

Please put the paper in the bag
Do you have a sign
that the plumbing here
cannot handle trash
not even the paper
we think is meant
to be flushed down
our strong toilet plumbing
Do you live on the side
where easily exists the wealth
to dispose of all refuse
refuse it tells you
the world is designed to dispose
does your sink have a blade
a mechanized sword
to cut up the trash
and force it down
the strong metal pipes
of the clean nation

Long Term Care

Long term care
Uber to work
Clean the sheets
Change the catheters
Study like a nurse
Pay like a janitor
Travel to home jobs
Or failing facilities
Middle men take the money
No money for insurance
No money for bills
No long term care
In long term care

Potluck

What are you bringing to the potluck?
Tables and tables
covered in dishes and love
Kimchi fried rice and lentil curry
cabbage salad, cucumber salad, shirazi salad
tamales and pintos and Spanish rice
coconut soup and vegetable stew
samosas and sambuusas and empanadas too
casseroles and lasagna and giant ravioli
potato and yam and cassava and daikon
spring rolls and egg rolls and enchiladas
gyoza and wontons, pierogi and one pelmen
edamame, tofu, mozzarella, and paneer
sourdough, pita, naan, and lavash
takoyaki balls and bowl of colcannon

The Elevators Have Stopped Working

The elevators have stopped working
dying cars, freezers, and lifts
stickers stay frozen
the elevator here
hasn’t worked since last year
Derivatives make better stuffing
than commodity foodstuffs
speculation on futures
event contracts on suffering
Perpetuals declare
competive advantage
in imaginary steel

7th Day

And Satan said to God
on the 7th day
This world you made
is not so good actually
You have cut some corners
The crops are not growing
The rivers are running dry
This is all a facade God
You can’t leave them this way

Kimchi Making

The napa cabbage leave
cracking and pulling apart
watery pages of green and white
crisp and stiff
we rub them and cover them
with thick corns of salt
Every tabletop and counter
covered by plates and platters and cutting boards
salted cabbage curing all over the house
all the cats looking on from the ground
wary of all the strange plants
spreading out taking up their climbing ground
their spots for jumping and stepping on

chop chop chop, rhythmically knocking
knife on wood chopping
we dance around each other
thru the kitchen and dining room
washing and peeling
scrubbing and chopping
chopping and chopping
carrots and daikon
mizuna and green onion
rinsing and shaking
removing roots and stems
silver, ribbon, slice
piling a mound in our big red bowl
we the gochugaru
dried red pepper flakes
glittering like rubies and red gold
twice, three times, eight cups all told
for our special extra spicy kimchi

we boil the sweet rice flour
to feed to our yeast friends
we pour the paste into our big red bowl
with vegan fish sauce, salt, and MSG
we put on nitrile gloves to protect
against having angry stinging hands
and stick our hands deep down
into the mix to mix and stir
and squeeze together and
squish all the clumps and move the globs
until our veggies cry out their tears
and become a smooth spicy paste
our tasty ruby kimchi mix

We boil the jars and clean their caps
wait for whole ten hours to pass
we rinse the softly wilted cabbage leaves
shake them dry like floppy dogs
we take the big red bowl
drag a leaf through red paste
squish it deep down
into the depths of our lovely mix
cover it well on both sides
wrap a bundle of slivered veggies and ruby paste
and shove the bundle down
to the bottom of our jar
squish it down into the side
so that no air bubbles show
through the clear wall of our jar

Koreans say ‘hand taste’
is the taste of homecooking love
we alternate back and forth
I fold a leaf and roll it
push it way down
you cup your hand
around our kimchi bundle
and squish it down
and squish it down
bundle by bundle, leaf by leaf
layer by layer we pat it down
and top it off with goodies and paste
reds and greens and white and orange
let no air bubbles show
we place on the cap
not too tight
don’t want it to explode

then we pack the next jar
back and forth
back and forth
your hand, then mine,
your hand, then mine
reaching into the jar
we’re tired but happy
at the end of the day
when we make kimchi
we eat hot rice
and fresh kimchi and extra mix
white fluffy short grains
sweet crunchy, spicy, salty veggies
we fall asleep dreaming
of kimchi creations:
kimchi mandu and KBBQ
kimchi jiggae and kimchi bokkumbap
kimchi ramen and kimchi hot pots

Criminal defense lawyers often do not go with the defense their clients want to use. A lot of times, they go with what sounds good to them instead of what then truth is. Or, they will lose on purpose because the D.A. is so arrogant that he does a piss-poor job because he thinks you’ll just take the plea-bargain “deal”. Then if the defendant turns out not to be a dumbass after all and goes to a Law Library and punches a bunch of holes in the D.A.s case, the defense lawyer doesn’t want to embarrass the D.A. by beating him at trial, because they have to see that D.A. again in court tomorrow, but never has to see YOU again. So who do you want to please? So, your own lawyer will take a dive in the 5th round, like a boxer paid off n threatened by the mob.

David Matthew Strunk 102504
Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility
12750 Hwy 96 @ Lane 13
Ordway, CO 81063

April 3, 2026
Fort Worth, Texas

The lesson from Luke. And one of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?”

And we indeed have been condemned justly for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” This is the Gospel of Grace. Thanks be to God.

Earlier this Spring, nine activists were convicted on terrorism and other charges in a Federal case here in Fort Worth, which many see as setting an alarming precedent for groups opposing the policies of the United States government. The charges came after activists set off fireworks outside of ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado late 4^th or early 5^th of July. Some in the group split off from the main and began spray painting graffiti and slashing government tires. A police officer responded to the scene, drew his weapon, and was allegedly fired upon and hit by one of the activists. He survived. In April, eight of the protesters were convicted of riot, detonating explosive devices, and materially supporting terrorism. The alleged shooter was also convicted of attempted murder. The administration labeled the court victory as vindication of its crackdown on Antifa, a loosely defined term for those opposing Fascism.

Cody Cofer, a former Broadway member, represented one of the defendants. He said the case illustrates how easy it is for the State to prosecute for conspiracy to commit terrorism if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time or connected with the wrong people. The result is the effect of making the American public afraid to show up to even a peaceful protest for fear of someone somewhere may get out of hand and anyone and everyone be charged as co-conspirators. People should be scared, Cody said.

When Jesus came to Jerusalem in that last week of his life, he led a controversial demonstration against the citadel of his nation. That was either on Sunday or on Monday. We’re not sure which. What we are sure of is that on Thursday, the soldiers were sent to come and arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the melee that erupted at the time of his arrest, the slave of the high priest was wounded by the sword of one of Jesus’s disciples who was trying to defend Jesus. That man too survived and Jesus surrendered peacefully. At the trial, the Jewish authorities accused Jesus of the crime of blasphemy and of threatening to destroy the temple. But when he was brought before the governor, Pontius Pilate, the charges became even more grave. He was charged with crimes against Caesar and trying to overthrow the Roman government. He was found guilty for his role in the demonstration. He was judged as a provocateur and accomplice to the violence of his disciples. He was sentenced to summary death. He was hanged on a cross and he died between two criminals. Some translations say bandits and others say rebels. One on his left and one on his right. Roman crucifixions were like American lynchings. They were public spectacles meant not only to torture and kill one but to terrify all. So it was that this Jesus died on that day in Jerusalem. A by word and a scandal and a public example.

He died for the protest and demonstration.

He died because of the company he kept.

He died because he was deemed an enemy of the state.

He died because, well, they wanted to make everyone afraid.

So then we say: “He died for the sins of his nation.”

After the Prairieland Nine were convicted three Fridays ago, David Grabel, a Broadway member and fellow minister and one of our readers tonight, met with some of the family members. One of the mothers of one of the convicted, a woman of faith, shed tears in the presence of David and asked him, “What’s God’s plan?” Now that, beloved, is a Good Friday question. And here too is another from the words of the old Black Spiritual: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? And was it something like we are experiencing even now? Tonight, we come to be near to a man on a cross, Ecce Homo. Here is the man. Some say he was a criminal, others a terrorist and an enemy of the state. So he was condemned. Yet some of us say, some of us say: Truly he was the son of God, the savior of the world.

Greetings, Friend, fellow anarchist and U.S. political prisoner Anson Chi here. I hope you’re doing well. I’d like to update you on the new egregious misconduct by the United States Bureau of Prison against us anarchists:

-The BOP banned all my anarchist publications, as well as other ones. The BOP even banned and then rejected my snail mail, because I am trying to fight the police brutality in my case that led to my wrongful conviction and wrongful incarceration. I have proof that I can mail you.

-The BOP never gave me a single rejection notice, not one, nothing at all. The BOP just blatantly banned my snail mail!

Anson Chi 44588-177
FCI Ray Brook
PO Box 300
Ray Brook, NY 12977