“Woke” Words Purged
“These [italicized] Words Are Disappearing in the New
Trump Administration,” New York Times, March 7, 2025
* Underscored words survived the purge.
diverse litany of discrimination
status is out, along with
oppression, injustice, privilege/s
but class* and communism stay
inequality, injustice erased
but being the classless, clueless U.S.
bourgeoisie and proletariat survive
along with labor, capital
redistribution, dialectic
political economy plus profit
& servitude remain, unpurged
exploitation and expulsion get to stay
no matter that Marxism, materialism
weren’t purged, but
no more woke talk: inequality, social justice
sex, sexuality, trans, non-binary banned
feminism’s and females but not males are out
purge prostitute, though sex worker stays
along with women, gender’s gagged
queers, fags, and dykes carry on, exempt
along with dildos, toys, and vibrators
and queer and clit and fuck and suck
marginalized but not woke, so keepers
migrants are deported
Gulf of Mexico disappeared
fascism the second time around as farce
and materialism—that legacy fight not purged
or the imperialism & colonialism
that brought us here
critical race theory too survived
didn’t make the cut
along with slavery still in
but segregation, racism,
Black & BIPOC’s booted out
while white and white supremacy stay
inclusivity’s an ideology despite de jure DEI
environmentalism, climate crisis,
clean energy, pollution, apocalypse
may corporatism’s victims
trans into insurgency
fostering radical democracy
resistance into revolution
but survival depends on
solidarity and forever
Worse Now Than Then?
not half as much bang now as seductions we took for granted:
abundant sex (good but not great)
and drugs (the one thing that’s improved)
rock and roll (best ever)
bionic health, undisturbed sleep, friendship, phone machines
great Thai food two blocks away, mass hallucination shared
the coming revolution
hell must be partitioned like Bentham’s panopticon
angled mirrors prevent prisoners from seeing their captors
now we’re kissing their asses or voting for them
the pneumatic tube in the dream factory
whooshed down with a plop, producing Pollyannas
who believed the grass was greener on the path not taken
the optimism of agency
fantasy paths that never existed
but now, knowing the difference between money and value
motored the long morph into raging Debbie Downers
Dion Farquhar has poems in New Words Press, Non-Binary Review,
Superpresent, BlazeVOX, etc. Finishing Line Press published her third
poetry book, Don’t Bother, last fall. She works as an exploited adjunct,
loves her students, and is active in the University of California Santa Cruz
lecturers’ union, the UC-AFT. Website: https://dionfarquharpoetry.cargo.site/
Featured image “Metal Movable Type” Uploaded by Willi Heidelbach to be licensed via creative commons 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
