For Lorenzo Salgado Araujo (1974–2026), initially identified as John Doe.
A soft landing. We aren’t the first, scratching our matchsticks along a sidewalk, setting buildings on fire. We want to spark a future we all can breathe in. Family's not nothing, and we’re all relatives in an absolute kind of way, wearing our single-use bodies like prom dresses on our daily trips to the mailbox. The flickering space between birth and death is an unfolding dance of DNA and circumstance. Start the heart like a stopwatch. Let the ticking noise be background sound. Is it personal if it’s all of us? Here is the secret we tell one another in the closet of our dreams: you can’t sit this one out. We’re all John Doe as we pack lunch for work. This war is not a war but is a war if you resist. Behold our given names. Behold the milk poured over tear-gassed eyes. Behold how his speeches are tambourines full of bees.
Malaika King Albrecht's fifth book is forthcoming from Main Street Rag.
