day TWELVE HUNDRED and FORTY SIX

Last Things

"My mother said that stones were last things and would be around long after people were gone.  Other last things were oceans, metal and crows."

~ Jenny Offill's novel, Last Things   

George Floyd, murdered by a cop

pressing a knee on his neck,

becomes a rallying cry

for democracy’s last stand.

Final words: “I can’t breathe…”

Communities take to the streets and march,

condemn police brutality,

demand change, social justice,

tell the world, “Black Lives Matter”.

Peaceful protestors, journalists are beaten,

tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets,

cleared from sacred spaces for a propaganda photo op

as fascism flexes jack boots and knuckles.

Tanks, private security contractors

circle the White House, erect a wall

to keep people out while inside a coward

tweets inflammatory insults,

turns off the lights, hides in his bunker.

Throughout the nation,

fires ignite, windows break.

Four hundred years of rage bubbles over.

--Jennifer Lagier