Our Liberation Will Not Be Live-streamed

You will not be able to stay in and
you will not be able to log out
you will not be able to self-mute, block your face, and turn away
Because our liberation will not be live-streamed

Our liberation will not be live-streamed
Our liberation will not be a panel of experts
from every institution who imagines themselves to exist
our liberation will not be a power point presentation
breaking down the trends of yesterday to pretend we know tomorrow
Our liberation will not be delivered by next-day shipping
brought to your door, signed, sealed, and disinfected
our liberation will not be the othering of ourselves
our liberation will not bail out corporations
and deny the dying ventilators

Our liberation will not be live-streamed
There will be no detained immigrants, gasping for air
families torn doubly asunder by distance and disease
friends forgotten sinking into this dystopian digital divide
an inferno of screens and blue smoldering light in the darkness
There will be no floating emojis or thumbs up
virtual backdrops, memes of your friend’s cat eating his toilet paper while you lose your job
There will be no video confessionals to an audience you cannot see,
no international conspiracy theories and news that is not new

Our liberation will not be live-streamed
There will be no jingoistic nationalism
and brandishing of red hats of hate
There will be no “choosing between the better of two evils”
and staying home when asked to vote
There will be no Ctrl Alt Delete
or well-behaved moderator who reminds you of the rules

Our liberation will not be live-streamed
Our liberation will not be sent out as a private link
password-protected, or trolled by faceless phonies
robocalling your aging parent
or inquiring about your loan which does not exist
or the cruise package you do not wish to win

Our liberation will not be live-streamed
Our liberation will not begin after this ad
or ask you to complete a five-minute survey
or gather your personal data
for the benefit of someone you will never meet
Our liberation will not decide whose deaths are more important than others
and which countries to ignore or vilify
our liberation will not be at the cost of wage theft
our liberation will promote neither #RealBeauty, Real ID, nor the real Donald Trump
our liberation will not risk others’ lives on account of our boredom
our liberation cannot be hoarded
our liberation WILL be shared and created by us
our liberation will not be live-streamed
WILL not be live-streamed, WILL NOT BE LIVE-STREAMED
Our liberation will not be recorded
Our liberation will be live.
Next year, we pray, in-person, in good health, wherever, however.
How was your meeting experience?