January 26, 2026

A poem I wrote this weekend. From Maine, in solidarity.

Neighbors
Eli Grober

They killed your neighbor yesterday
or maybe the day before.
They took another one away
while he was working at the store.

They put your neighbor in a camp
somewhere she can’t be seen.
Then they put your neighbor on a plane
to a place she’s never been.

They found your neighbor’s kid
walking home from school.
They held him by his backpack
and used him as a tool.

Your neighbor and her child
were taken in the night.
Their car is sitting in the street,
you see the hazard lights.

Now they’ve killed your other neighbor.
They say they’ll kill some more.
And they’re just looking for a reason
To break down your front door.

If the purpose of a system
Is what that system does,
Then the purpose of this system
Is violence—always was.

Yes a neighbor is a person
and it matters what you do.
Because no matter who you are,
you’re a neighbor too.

---

This is going to keep happening. And as long as we do not dismantle this system, we are responsible for its cruelty and its violence. If you have not started taking part in action that supports the most vulnerable in your community, in work that pushes back against the notion that your neighbors are the enemy and that human life is expendable when agents of the State feel unsafe, now is not too late.