Saturday, December 26, 2015

Freedom Train

It has become an annual tradition
set amidst the backdrop
of Starbucks and Barnes & Noble,
Jamba Juice and Nickelodeon Universe.

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I was there for the round dance of 2012
With drumming and a thousand Native voices
filling the rotunda for treaty rights.
And the next year when they arrested two women
who had organized a protest that never happened.


I missed Black Christmas last year
but covered the trial afterward.
Today I have no notebook.
I’m not working, but I can’t stand still.
I work the room. Chatting with my artist
friends who have shown up to
mingle by the Christmas tree.
Alleen is in town for the holidays.
Carl’s having a baby soon.
Corrie gives a rundown of his new job.

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Shoppers line up along the tiered balconies
Watching through their cell phones
the ground floor of the rotunda
where bodies mill about
under the hovering proclamation:
“This demonstration is not authorized”.

A photo posted by Sheila Regan (@sheilaregan) on
The storm troopers create a circle
around the people who have gathered here
Later, a photo on Facebook reveals
the riot-gear welcome brigade
under the Mall of America sign.
There will be memes, it’s that kind of day.

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There’s shouting. A young man is being
taken away by three cops in bullet proof vests
One of them drops his helmet
and they have to stop for him to pick it up.
A crowd forms around the scuffle
but we are being told to move away
to head toward the trains
A short, black woman waves her arms
to us that it’s time to leave

A photo posted by Sheila Regan (@sheilaregan) on
Inside the freedom train,
the light rail to justice
We tetris together. There’s a song
but it dwindles.
So far, this has been a quiet protest
No chanting, no speeches.
We are heading somewhere
but I don’t know where.

A photo posted by Sheila Regan (@sheilaregan) on
I’m afraid in the not knowing.
But I know I’m in the right place.
I don’t know where I’m going.
But I know it’s the right direction.
A photo posted by Sheila Regan (@sheilaregan) on