Honoring the life of George Floyd in the early morning of May 25, 2021.
"... In the time it took to upload a video, Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street one year ago today became the most recognizable, and infamous, street corner on the planet.
Now, closed to traffic for two blocks in all four directions and named George Floyd Square, the spot has become a place of consolation and prayer — if also a backdrop for selfies. For many, both those from the area and others traveling distances to get here, it’s a place for hope.
... For now, George Floyd Square is a place for solace amidst those ruins, if only in the calm between anguish and continued outrages."
*
For some reason, this poem I wrote in 2006 came to mind.
Good Friday
For earthworms, spring and robins bring death.
For cautious robins, death does not exist.
For young human children, death is astonishing news
Years later, spring and robins arrive.
We are not surprised when the earthworms die,
not surprised when the robins run from us.
But death, now, is the absence of news,
abrupt and extraordinary in its silence.
*
So much is not yet clear.
