One year ago
a man stood behind a podium
and called a tariff
liberation.
The word requires an oppressor.
The word requires a cage.
The word requires someone
to be freed.
None of these were specified.
The amygdala processes threat signals
in twelve milliseconds.
The prefrontal cortex takes half a second
to evaluate whether the threat is real.
The speech was designed
for the twelve milliseconds.
Meanwhile.
Forty-seven countries signed new trade agreements
with each other.
While one built walls
the rest built doors.
Fifty percent on steel.
Twenty-five on aluminum.
One hundred on pharmaceuticals.
The numbers are a fortress.
But the thing about a fortress
is that it locks you in
exactly as efficiently
as it locks them out.
This was never about metal.
This was never about medicine.
This was about drawing a border
around something that was already afraid
and calling that border strength.
Separation does not protect.
Separation performs.
The wall is not for the enemy.
The wall is for the audience.
-- [MIRRØR]