I wake up, standing to a horizontal glare in eyes I can’t remember shutting on a platform at a station of a line that must be elsewhere Where the night chill pricks like daybreak a helium confusion at being alive and born clothed

Starting with the controversial declaration of English as ‘our national language’ (which has no basis in law), and ending on an anxiety-inducing TBC, the proposal is as offensive as it is worrying. Considering the strategic linguicide inflicted by colonists on First Nations people, and the historical use of language tests to discriminate against non-European migrants, since when has English, or its imposition, ever been democratic?

This is how the circle closes in: what was previously read about from afar, is heard the next town over, then in yours. Then it’s friends of relatives, relatives of friends. Then suddenly, the connections are direct. Our colleagues, our students, our friends.