Following the Death of George Floyd

This has been a horrific week in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd. A series of poems about this time continues to foment within me. Here are two of them.



Following the Death of George Floyd
Day Three of Unrest - Minneapolis


Injustice butts heads
with bands of blue-clad policemen.

Rocks and bottles battle bullets
of rubber, tear gas. Opening skirmishes.

Angry red shopping carts fly airborne
towards the doors of the superstore
that birthed them.

Palpable outrage simmers and builds,
burns buildings and sears the souls
of anguished citizens.

In the distance I see the flames climbing.



Following the Death of George Floyd
Day Five of Unrest - Minneapolis


A thousand rioters shoving, pressing to cross a bridge.
A thousand cops pushing back.

Official vehicles with flashing lights
- blue then red then blue then red then blue then red -
a psychedelic cork plugging the way

as the waters of the northern Mississippi
tumble a thousand feet below
in the bootblack of night.

Thousands of National Guardsmen, State Troopers
and Police like border collies with sharp teeth
- nipping, nipping, biting, nipping, biting, biting -
work on dispersing crowds defying curfew, bent
on mayhem.

Across the country a thousand other hotspots roil
with turmoil, too.



 Marilyn Aschoff Mellor