protest

The Last 46 Seconds

  The ninth day commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life.   I Want to Breathe by James Laughlin   I want to breathe   you in I’m not talking about perfume or even the sweet odour   of your skin but of the air itself I want to share   your air inhaling […]

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Minute Eight

The final two poems of commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life will shift from poems of protest to poems of solidarity.   *   Day eight, minute eight. We are near the end. He lays silent and still in the street. He is alone, he is in this moment friendless, he has no […]

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Minute Seven

Day seven of commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life.     America by Claude McKay   Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth. Her vigor flows like tides […]

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Minute Six

Day six of commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life. The sixth minute is when Floyd became unresponsive.   Still I Rise by Maya Angelou   You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.   Does […]

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Minute Four

Day four of commemorating the last moments of George Floyd’s life:     What Do We Do—Now by Ellen Hagan     —after Gwendolyn Brooks   We mourn, we bless, we blow, we wail, we wind—down, we sip, we spin, we blind, we bend, bow & hem. We hip, we blend, we bind, we shake, […]

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Minute Two

Day two, commemorating the second minute of the last moments of George Floyd’s life:     Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield   Let them not say:   we did not see it. We saw.   Let them not say:   we did not hear it. We heard.   Let them not say:    they did not taste […]

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