Liz Mariani

better get clean before the taxman
comes to tax you for living

i got raped and all i got was this lousy t-shirt

can’t teach in america when everywhere is
a classroom ripe for a mass shooting
can’t walk/wake/weep in america
when everywhere is a hospital rotten aerosol mustard

i got raped and all i got was this air-raid drill

i don’t want your fame or appreciation
your accolades or recognition
your payments or compensations

what i want is to live without the pressure to entertain you
your friends
your friend’s friends
your friend’s friend’s friend’s friends

what i want is to live without implication or pressure
to entertain you
to confuse you

to kick up grey and salty dusk dust rust
in the face of a clear sky

i hope you choke on your wanting
the wanting rationalizing
this refracted murder spree
i hope you choke on your wanting
as you traumatize me and everyone i love

Liz Mariani‘s work has been published in Two Serious Ladies, Italian Trans Geographies (edited by Danila Cannamela, Marzia Mauriello, and Summer Minerva via SUNY Press), Great Lakes Review, The Waiting Room, The Buffalo News, After The Pause, and Advaitam Speaks. Find her at linktr.ee/lizmarianipoetry

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.