CONGRESSIONAL INCEPTION MEETS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
1.
kiss vampire red lips on the back of the bus nyx shade copenhagen
elegantly discuss DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING & tell the boy you love him right when he looks up the Washington Post. quote “democracy dies in darkness” against the expanse of his skin. kiss his neck. fall in love. wear a suit to
WAKE UP at six in the morning & trauma dump for a ballot
[HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH AND DEBATE is an academic activity typically available to students. Similar to athletic sports, speech and debate activities are challenging, competitive in nature, and require regular practice, coaching, dedication, and hard work.]
WAIT. tell me again baby what does it mean to be human & i am kissing you on the back of the bus (kissing like a prayer :: hope for a better time) WE WIN the tournament we win the war we win what it means
WAKE UP at seven in the morning & roleplay congressional speakers
pretend they don’t make your life a living hell (you are queer & brown & chronically-in-pain & this doesn’t matter at AIA ARIZONA STATE TOURNAMENT but it does in the real world where your competitors turn against you the minute the round is over & bite down into your insecurities)
WAIT. tell me again baby what does it mean to lose & i am kissing my own tournament lipstick of your cracked lips & praying to gods i don’t believe in to make this work &
WAIT. tell me again about SOKO NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION baby tell me the world’s ending when we’re stuck in highschool i want to annotate books in the margins of what it means to love & WAIT. tell me again about HARVARD NATIONAL DEBATE TOURNAMENT where i kissed you until i couldn’t breathe & i became the monster congressional debater i feared i’d become
WAIT. tell me again baby when you realized this was it & i am kissing you across the knowingness that we are going to be nothing // be swallowheart swallowtail & blood across my body & a COUNTERPLAN for a policy we can’t endorse because it’ll kill us all.
2.
[welcome to WINTER TROPHY DIVISION ONE where i watch you win congressional debate. monster. my love]
WAIT. remember when i told you what happened the last time this happened. congressional inception. congressional debate meets child predator meets i’m fucking sorry you’re banned from the TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
WAIT. baby i don’t want to become that monster (lines of coke running down my nose. i debate college policy. i follow the pipeline)
WAIT. baby i’m begging you to stay here. stay mine baby i remember when Vedh Shetty pretended they were queer so that they could take advantage of the circuit i remember when Jay Shapiro was banned from the tournament of champions because he stalked a freshman i remember when my debate captain told me that my gender would never be valid unless i was a good debater
WAIT. come on baby remember that time i saw you in ARIZONA DISTRICT QUALIFIER winning extemporaneous speaking you looked beautiful under that light you looked like the monster we both knew we were
[WELCOME to high school speech & debate, where all kids go to die & drown & where i face sexism comments like THE LENGTH OF YOUR BLAZER DISTRACTS FROM YOUR ARGUMENTATION & i’m sorry but your voice is too shrill for debate. maybe try dying instead.]
WAIT. maybe this is the end of the story. maybe we repeat over & over again. maybe we pretend we’re not the monster this time. maybe we do lines & take shots & pretend we’re good enough. maybe HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH & DEBATE rots us whole & spits us back out
arushi (aera) rege is a queer, chronically in pain, Indian-American poet in senior year in high school. They tweet occasionally @academic_core and face the perils of instagram @aeranem_26. Their chapbooks, exit wounds (no point of entry), and BROWN GIRL EPIPHANY, are forthcoming with Kith Books and fifth wheel press. They are the EIC of nightshade lit, Bus Talk, and Draupadi Interviews. You can find their website at arushiaerarege.carrd.co.