This poem is an erasure of prominent and frequently embraced white voices and institutions in the United States. Text in italics has been excerpted from source documents spanning from August of 1761 to August of 2017 (see “Source Notes”); the erasure was done primarily in 2016.

These canonical voices center white supremacy; the poem describes white supremacist actions. As such, the poem is violent. It includes court and news documents about sexual assault, and references torture.

It was written for other white readers.

To fighting re-articulations of these voices (including any of my own that may show up here), and to the death of white supremacist ideologies. To the centering of Black, brown, and Indigenous women and queer people. You make the world.