[Newspoetry] Genoa Rules

[mlehman]

Written in the woods near Beartown, Colorado, July 21, 2001.

Genoa Rules

I sit in a tent of thin nylon
Surrounded by nature
Wild in her schemes
There's bears rifling
Through people's garbage in Durango
Like some over-grown raccoons
Yet I left the guns at home
Facing the bears
In the wilds of Colorado
Armed with nothing more than a 4 D-cell flashlight
Meanwhile
I listen to the only
Timely news I can receive-BBC shortwave
A cop shoots a kid dead
Right in the black mask of anarchism
Spewing blood
Mixing black and red
Like a 21st Century Sandinista
The kid died
For throwing a fire extinguisher
In the direction of
A well-armed cop/thug
Mussolini would be proud
Of the cop
Then the police raids
Without warrants
On the protest organizers
And what sounds like the
Genoa Indy Media Center
Although the Beeb
Dares not mention the phrase "IMC"
It's a threat
To the established order
Yet the BBC reporter
Notes the brutal raids
Where police beat protesters
Into pools of blood
Which will trickle
Into the veins of
Revolutionaries across the globe

Mike Lehman