Poem: 'If (Revisited)' by Sean Bw Parker

If you post on social media after drinking

If you have a drunken one night stand

If you disobey a brand new law

We will remove you from the land

That you know, and place you elsewhere

If you question a religion in the public sphere

Or call out others for being unfair

We will drag you silently back to where

If you can’t see the evidence you know exists

If you can’t get an answer from those who know

You’ll repent at leisure for even asking

We will test to see how low you can go

Even if you never wanted the fifteen minutes at all

It will destroy the lives of your family and friends

Deflecting questions and picking up pieces

Tense against power and looking towards ends

Always promised, but stretching infinitum

Testing the resolve of non-pliant citizens

Hoping they can somehow fold it all into growth

If they can manage to pivot from years to seconds

If those under the microscope can do all this

For nothing more than not playing the game

Of pretending, of not following instincts

They may just survive, if never quite the same.

Sean Bw Parker (2025)

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