Par for
the Course
the Course
original work
2026
2026
Do it the right way, they said.
How do you “do it the right way”
when the right way is rigged?
When the cards are stacked so
h i g h
against you
that you start to wish
they’d
just
f
a
l
l
Andsmotheryoubecause
you
can’t
breathe.
Not you.
Not me.
Not anyone they’ve decided doesn’t belong here.
And even if you were born here
— even if you bled here
— even if you built here
the knee
finds your neck
the same.
Par for the course
in a country that was never just
— just just.
Just for them.
And I have done everything right.
Every single thing they asked.
Mom was disabled and we struggled
and I swore I would build something
and I did —
three businesses, six figures,
twice what my parents made in a year,
still treading water,
still not enough.
The bar doesn’t move because you’re failing.
It moves because you were never
supposed to reach it.
You’re so right
that you’re wrong.
Wrong to have believed them.
Wrong to have dreamed of America
like it was something
worth dreaming of.
Watching the American dream burn.
Not because the dream died.
But because America set it on fire
and went back inside
and turned on the TV.
All we do is workandcriticizeandconsume.
And We Still Can’t Breathe.
— end —
original work — Brittany Adams
2026
ARE WE ON FIRE YET 
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