Jackass asking me if I'll help pull a bike rack
Onto Hennepin. Clang of metal on asphalt
Is right and wrong,
like screaming the answers during a standardized test.
Jackass asking me if I'll hold the chain-link open for him
To slide under, his face close enough that the icicles in his beard
melt into my ear. He tags the concrete AMIR LOCKE
Murdered by MPLS cops
He tags Shoot back! and squirrels to anonymous safety.
Afterward, a medic on a bike tells me that this squat embarrassment
adorned in chain link is the 5th precinct.
Then they give me a burrito
I use it as a handwarmer.
Night of suspicious openings. Wary of being kettled with that
Helicopter threatening the sky.
Amir Locke written in dust on a party bus
Party bus parked sideways blocking traffic.
A man runs out of Popeyes and joins us, bless him,
most drivers avoid our eyes
as we weave between their frustrated vehicles
dragging traffic cones
and recycling bins behind us
like caught fish.
Helicopter stalking us from 1700 feet, but
Why won't they meet us in the street?
Rarely have I felt as powerful than with J on my left
and O and K on my right staring down stopped traffic and then
Oh happy accident
The gardener who tended the flowers
In George Floyd Square
Walks by on a Friday night date
And he moves to speak of warmth and his everywhereness
Our everywhereness
Shivers come into me
Until I'm dancing
Amir Locke in the red paint someone launches over the fence
at the precinct.
Why won't they meet us in the street?
There's nowhere to escalate, and
the cold
so we disperse.
In the somber car home
K moves to speak the truth:
Our four white bodies should be background at an abolitionist protest.
Yes. And- I would rather be background here
Than anywhere else. Our numbers kept us safe. We keep us safe.
This was a structure test - A test that makes us stronger.
Reddit says there was rioting in downtown MPLS over the weekend -
No. This was no uprising. This was a structure test - That day will come.
cdzhouse 