ODE TO MINNEAPOLIS

 

How did they get so brave, the citizens of Minneapolis

In the face of all too realistic threats of death from ICE?

After Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered, still

Hundreds were on the streets, opposing the violent will

Of their government with demands for humanity and justice,

Their ballsy humour giving their peacefulness some fizz.

Would I choose to join them in the face of state thuggery?

If you get in the way of rapists, you’re open to buggery.

That’s bad, but you can make rational predictions, whereas

The randomness of these killings makes them too various

For avoidance. Renee was getting her car out of the road

When they shot her in the face. I would wear nothing to goad

Them if I protested, my banner would say, “please go

Away, if you don’t mind,” or “Peace in our time, if that’s O

K with you.” I would smile inoffensively and be ready to strip

naked to prove I had no weapon. My trembling lip

would acknowledge, “Guns make me nervous.” Gangs

who kill without reason will not be soft-soaped. No chance

of mercy or even rational evil from Trump’s soldiers.

So these protesters in Minneapolis are a good deal bolder

Than me, as they stand with those who have no choice,

The immigrants, who knew the USA as freedom’s voice.

ODE TO THE DUGONG

A video from Thailand grabs my attention, it’s from Phuket

 well-known for holidays but not advocating tourism

in this case. Rather, it’s about the Dugong. Until recently

due to extensive beds of sea-grass, Dugongs gently

browsing could be seen in the shallow waters of the bays

offering sight of a rare and beautiful animal named Sirenides

after the maidens said to sing to sailors. Less romantic

observers called it the Sea-pig, In fact an elephant quit

the land to become a sea-dweller adapting in a time

of spreading oceans to many parts of the world, now confined

to the West Pacific, where the human destruction of coastland

and pollution of waters is killing off the sea grass. It can’t

survive without it. It moves slowly, head down, patient,

peaceful, and might be companionable if if I learned

to swim with it. Now the dugong of Phuket havedied or vanished.

 A symbol of the process by which species are banished

From the universe is The Trump, huge, stupid and brutal

Active in many and expanding into more areas of futile

Hegemony with no purpose other than its pleasure

In being obeyed. Its human population is an erasure

Of life which it wants to extend without limit. We must

oppose it in the power of the democracy of living things,

the networks of atoms, the cognition of cells, the strings

of DNA, the leaps of evolution, the resource of bacteria

the invention of insects, the agility of fish, the media

 of fungi, the geography of birds, the embrace of animals,

and the languages of human beings auditory or visual

like the painted hands from the Sulawesi cave in today’s

newspaper 70,000 years old from Indonesia that say

We are here too, we can do it together, yes all together

For the good earth against The Trump. It is death or

Life, so we should declare against the American Anus

The truth that nothing and no-one is superfluous

To our vision of the good expressed in policies local

And international that are just, allowing what is fragile

To flourish in the face of all that is merely gigantic

And what is beautiful to grow in place of all that is slick

And powerful. If we only speak this, it will become our

Funeral oration, we must do it, although our bones are

Weary, for terminal things may happen now if the earth

is left to careless fools. But if we can succeed in this, then

The Trump’s remains will be food for our sewage system

While the Dugong, with enough seagrass for quality

Eating, will be an honoured citizen of our polity.