everybody dies

everybody dies

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Almost every man I know talks too goddamn much. All my
favorite poets are women & gods. What I really miss is the
pavement at midnight, my elongated shadow. There are
mornings when the hunger pulses through me, when I just
want to see a man die like an ox in a flooded field, where
every witness is swallowed at once by a minute of silence,
then continues the work of living. It’s not that I’m thirsty
for blood. I just want to be alone & with you at the same
time. G told me long ago she thinks I’m cold & I responded
for years by writing on shreds of paper, my mind is on fire.
She slipped them into her mouth & waited for the wet
grass of a man she could love. On my sternum there is a
thumbprint from where you pressed a seed into earth. G
told me, to be us is to die, before we kissed on the hood of my
car. I charged up & doubled down against my own death.
Years ago, I stole the necessary tools to bleed my idols & I
haven’t stopped drinking since that first cut. They’re buried
in my garden now, whispering into each other’s ears, fingers
wet with blood & water, combing through your hair. Two
suns live behind my eyes & while one rises, the other sets.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x