Monday, June 01, 2020

Up in Flames

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD SERIES



Up in Flames

When flames broke out in Minneapolis
The soul of a nation caught fire
It might have been the world
From Moscow to Madrid
From Israel to Istanbul
From Panama to Paris
From Lisbon to London
Primed and ready to explode

Like that long forgotten summer
When Watts went up in flames
And the westside of every town
From San Diego to the coast of Maine
Balanced on the edge of eruption
Held their breaths
And waited

Strike a flint and watch it burn
People cannot hold in place
So long without giving way
Without finding some release
Without setting off a chain reaction
That reaches from the smallest village
To the vast metropolis of LA

Like that summer of 68
When the students of Paris
Claimed the streets demanding
Fundamental change
The authorities didn’t understand
They don’t understand today

We have reached a tipping point
We stand on the precipice
Of total cataclysmic destruction
There is no mother that doesn’t smell it
There is no father that does not sweat
The powder keg is filled to brimming
And no one is beyond the reach
Of its destructive pull

May cooler calmer heads prevail
May poets and preachers carry the day
This is not a time for vengeance
It is a time for common cause
A time for human kindness to rise
And unchecked anger to subside

We are all in this together
Heart to heart mind to mind
We are all in this together
And together we must find
A way out of this bind



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