Things are scary right now

Things are scary right now
As I sit in the airport
And brood

Things are scary right now
And my brother asks
If I'd stay in that distant land
Seeking asylum
From the insanity here at home

And then I ponder the oddity of
The many meanings of asylum,
how it can mean both a place filled with lunatics
or a place where you go to escape them

But things are still scary here
Especially for the brown-skinned and the queer

The ones who don't fit into the boxes
Of your white picket fences and 1950s politics

Things are scary right now
For people like me
The ones who've been to the asylums

Already

And can't bear the idea of seeking another one