Читать книгу The Tatters - Brenda Coultas - Страница 10

A MASS FOR BRAD WILL

If I were a quill I’d write in bright feathers all about you bursting into flight over the heads of cops

If I were a handsome feather, I’d walk to City Hall in full plumage and release all of Manhattan’s political prisoners

If I were a quill I’d give you life on this quiet page

On a four feather day, last one ruffled another grey with black-banded top

Then pinfeathers regroup to make a full on …

You might think his body was blown to bits or burned to ashes

Thrown into a favorite body of water

Maybe one of the great lakes

You might think he was made of feathers or of bird weight

No, he was buried whole, perhaps with bullets intact.

Critical mass. Yes, he liked to say it.

Critical mass is a beautiful way to say we gather

to shut down the system

so bicyclists can take over the streets

Critical mass

a way to say we gather

so that it matters

When the bicyclists take over the streets

and bring the city

to a standstill, Brad said that

is critical mass

I asked, “What happens when the city is shut down?”

He said, “Then we’ll dance.”

He liked a song about a drop of water. In this song, the drops came together to form a trickle, then a stream, a river, a body of water, the power of the water made us aware that we belonged to the earth, that we would protect her, and by the end of the song, the river was free.