According to former Republican congressman Mike Huckabee in 2010,
People with preexisting conditions are burned down houses
He said this
In response
As a talking point
As casually as a cough in polite conversation
As serious as a diagnosis
But all I could hear was that crackling sound wood makes as fire consumes it
All I could smell was smoke
And bullshit
Bullshit because he worked his words into a spell
Or a curse
And let millions of people be recast as objects
I smelled smoke
Because
In 1996, I became a burned down house
With a diabetes diagnosis
In my memories of that night,
I am crying
My family is crying.
According to Mr. Huckabee,
My mom must have been crying
Because it was too painful to watch her son
Turn from person
Into property
Mr. Huckabee,
I don’t know how to tell you that your words have consequences.
I don’t know how to tell you that you should care about your constituents
So I am attempting to tell you that I am human
I am not object
I am not house;
I am not floorboard
I should not be used as one of the planks to create your platform
I am telling you that your words
Would have left me with nothing but ash
I am saying that if I had thought of myself as nothing but a burned down house,
I would have remained a cremation
And never would have been able to return as a Phoenix
This poem wouldn’t be necessary
And I wouldn’t be so angry
If Republican representative Pat Toomey hadn’t said the exact same thing as Mr. Huckabee
But in 2017
Dear Republicans
I don’t know how to tell you that your policies have consequences
I don’t know how to tell you that your words keep having this habit of becoming epitaphs
According to Raul Labrador,
A republican representative from Idaho,
“No one has ever died because they don’t have access to health care”
In 2009, there were 45,000 reasons a year that this statement is a lie
In 2017, there are still 18,000 reasons a year that this is a lie
Before any healthcare reform was passed.
I remember being terrified of day to day living
Diabetes is a disease that turns food into poison and insulin into antidote
So there was no such thing as comfort food
When I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough insulin to cover my meals
I can feel that same terror creep into the back of my head
Whenever I hear, read, or see about the current health care debates
And it is exhausting to always be terrified
Dear congress,
I don’t know how to tell you that your policies make you terrorists for the chronically ill and disabled
I don’t know how to tell you that you cannot be both pro life and anti universal healthcare
If people die due to your writing the laws of the land,
Then their blood is on your hands
I don’t know how to tell you
That I am sick of needing to prove myself human
I don’t know how to stop you
From seeing me as a house
But I know that being on fire for the past 21 years has made me an expert at rebuilding
So I am telling you to help us rebuild this system
Or get left behind
In the ash.
