The greatest threat to American democracy will be in charge of running that democracy in two weeks. Since the events of 11/9, many have cycled through the stages of grief, and many more continue to cycle. If you're currently lingering somewhere between anger and depression, then the Seattle Review of Books has a slam poem by Elisa Chavez called "Revenge" that just might be the thing you need to bust out of your mind spiral and get back to work.

Chavez's humor and love of community drives the poem from the very beginning. The opening line—"Since you mention it, I think I will start that race war,"—is so glib that it effectively deflates the horror of the idea of a "race war," and gives her space to write her own terms of engagement.

Instead of firing shots, the speaker plans to get busy converting daughters to "lesbianism" and eating all the guns. "You brought your fists to a glitter fight," she quips later.

She imagines the future leaders of the U.S. as "a legion of multiracial babies" who "will be intersectional as fuck:"

there’s a Muslim kid in Kansas who has already written the schematic
for the robot that will steal your job in manufacturing,
and that robot? Will also be gay, so get used to it:

Chavez is the Seattle Review of Books' first poet-in-residence. According to the site, instead of just publishing one poem by one poet per week, as they've been doing, they're going to publish poems by one poet for a whole month. This way, you'll get to dive deeper into the work of Seattle poets.

Stranger Genius Lesley Hazleton writes movingly about her reaction to the poem over at her blog, The Accidental Theologist. Still reeling from the results of the election, a friend sent Hazleton Chavez's poem, and it pulled the genius out of her doldrums: "I knew the moment I saw the first lines that this [is] what I needed. Enough with the tears. This spirited slam poem had me cheering. It’s what got me moving again," she writes.