We Outlast Empire is a recurring series which aims to highlight poetry that explores the many angles of our current global and political situation. With words, we hope, we may transmute a part of ourselves—a part however small or large—that can exist without drawn borders, without violence, without injustice.

Sociology 101

Not oily, not greasy: creamy.

That’s it. Liberals are creamy.

The New Yorker is creamy.

What else? Business Class.

Who? Obama.

Clinton? No. Slick.

Tanya Harding? Al Sharpton?

What else is creamy? Hollywood, north of Sunset.

No, not Hollywood. Beverly Hills. Now, that’s creamy!

Get it? Pico Boulevard is greasy.

Tom Hanks is creamy.

Seinfeld. Ellen. Definitely Oprah.

You see what I am saying?

It works. Divide the world

And it all makes sense.

The affluent prefer creamy.

New car salesmen are creamy.

Used: oily or greasy, depending on the model.

Used foreign car salesmen are definitely greasy.

Check out a ten-year-old Mercedes.

It works.

Department store clerks used to be creamy.

Now it’s all self-service, so who knows?

The Kennedys: 50/50.

JFK? Creamy. Robert? Hard to say.

No one’s creamy at Walmart.

Target’s the same. There’s

Nothing creamy about McDonald’s,

Except in Japan and Hong Kong.

Everything is creamy at the ballet.

I’m telling you, it’s foolproof.

Bill Gates is creamy. Steve Jobs, silken.

How about Trump? What about the new President?

His daughter Ivanka is creamy.

He’s another matter.

Gold plating is not creamy.

It’s sleazy.

The voices in We Outlast Empire refuse complicity and draw their own borders. If you would like your poem to be apart of this series, please email mina@apogeejournal.org