Living In America Raw !new! -

At work, you’re expected to reply to Slack messages at 10 p.m. because “we’re a family.” Your boss talks about mental health awareness while denying your PTO. You smile. You cash the check. Half of it goes to health insurance you’re terrified to use because the deductible is a used Honda Civic.

You drive past a strip mall with a dentist, a vape shop, a dollar store, and a church in the same plaza. A guy is yelling at a lamppost about the FBI. Nobody looks. That’s the real code: keep moving, don’t engage, protect your energy. living in america raw

Friday night you sit on a cracked curb drinking a tallboy. The sky is orange from wildfire smoke or sunset — doesn’t matter. A neighbor blasts reggaeton. Another screams at their kid. Sirens wail three blocks over. You think: this is it. The grind. The dream. The raw fucking nerve of it all. At work, you’re expected to reply to Slack