Silicon Valley
Where we learn to perform a self
but not actually be one.
Where we learn to achieve, but not
breathe, to be a mind but not a body
to be a successful and powerful (White) individual,
competing for the 5% acceptance rate
at the elite institution. We learn to hoard
resources, but give them out once a year
to the poor Black and Brown kids,
over there across the freeway, in another world.
Because every valley casts a shadow.
Silicon Valley
Where we learn to perform a self
while living 7 people in a 1 bedroom apartment,
while living paycheck to paycheck,
while fearing a parent being deported,
while being from a family, but learning to be
an individual who succeeds, who becomes
the first in their family to…
Who can provide for their family
who can beat it all and be it all,
with little margin for error.
while their parents run on fumes but message
to their children to want the life that they have,
to want this life which is really just
a performance, a mirage of a life.
Silicon Valley
Where innovation is incubated, proliferated,
innovated in the name of advancement
all while ravaging our bodies, our spirits,
the earth. Leaving us inflamed, the earth
inflamed. Parched and thirsting for
nourishment, community, rest,
pause, peace, relief, silence,
thirsting for another way.
Silicon Valley,
Where the old way is dying
And a new way has yet
to be birthed.