This poem confronts the realities of racism, fascism, and systemic oppression in the United States. Through vivid imagery and raw emotion, it exposes how fear, privilege, and institutional violence shape American life, while highlighting the resilience and voice of marginalized communities.
“The State of the Dis-United”
An original poem by: Axton N.O. Mitchell
Rabid preacher,
lying through perfect teeth
straightened by the braces of minorities.
Speaking of liberty and God,
sitting there choking on both.
You draped hate in Stars and Stripes,
hung pride from every porch post,
called it patriotism…
it was merely your fear
in a pretty JoJo bow.
Your police hunt.
Your politicians feed.
And your children pledge allegiance
to the god, and to the country,
that never answered a single prayer
from the lips of someone “different.”
You see shelter
where I see a cage.
I scream bullets.
You respond justice.
Where white is “normal,”
and everyone else…
a “problem.”
I’ve seen your suburbs
built on
brown
and
black
bones,
your schools still teaching how to forget
by preaching white lies.
You sell “unity”
with a Confederate discount,
while renaming oppression
“freedom of speech.”
Your anthem is a siren,
and every verse
bleeds red, white, and bruise.
And still…
we breathe.
We march.
We write.
Turning every war-won wound
into witness.
No fascist flag
can outshine
the fire of the people
they try to silence.
This poem is born from my lived experience as a trans person navigating a country built on fear, exclusion, and hierarchy. I wrote it to call out the hypocrisy, the violence, and the ways systems crush those they deem “other.” But it’s also a testament to: resilience, survival, and the voices of all marginalized communities. This is me and I stand with you. Every line is a refusal to stay silent, every image a witness to injustice. I wrote it because poetry is my weapon, my witness, and my way of demanding that the world see us, hear us, and reckon with what we endure.
