{"id":271321,"date":"2024-08-12T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=271321"},"modified":"2024-08-11T05:28:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-11T04:28:31","slug":"and-out-of-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/08\/and-out-of-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"And Out of the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Out of the ashes, <\/span>
\nrose a helicopter.\u00a0 <\/span>
\nAn unwelcome phoenix.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Surveillance feeds on death. <\/span>
\nGrows stronger each time we mourn. <\/span>
\nLearns to be more nimble each time it feeds. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each murder, a thinly veiled fundraiser. <\/span><\/p>\n

A vehicle to assuage guilt, <\/span>
\nan admonishment with adornments, <\/span>
\nA pittance for our pain\u2014 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014And, somehow, a payday to a patronizing protection racket. <\/span><\/p>\n

The long arm of the law extends itself <\/span>
\nto tuck us in with a sniper rifle, after a 6 hour stand off, <\/span>
\nSings us a 9 second lullaby in the dead of night, and now we sleep forever. <\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder, <\/span>
\nHow an agency can have the tools to zoom in close enough to see the crust in my eyes <\/span>
\nYet still somehow manage to get the wrong person, so often.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost like, <\/span>
\nThe cruelty is the point\u00a0 <\/span>
\nA wink and a nod to their homies, to let\u00a0them know they still got it. <\/span><\/p>\n

They watch us mourn in 4K. <\/span>
\nShow force to \u201ckeep peace\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>
\nlike an ugly victory lap <\/span><\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry, the speeches will be so pretty y\u2019all! <\/span>
\nThe statements will be strongly worded, <\/span>
\nthe censures will be swift and, still, hollow.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how it works, right? <\/span>
\nPithy sayings turn into a police state? <\/span>
\nThe phoenix\u2019s wings make the windows rattle at night as a reminder to grieve silently. <\/span><\/p>\n

They see us,\u00a0 <\/span>
\nand we should be thankful <\/span>
\nor else.<\/span><\/p>\n

************************<\/p>\n

About this Poem:<\/em><\/strong> It is a response to the hyper-surveillance of communities across the Twin Cities following the uprising after the murder of George Floyd. It notes the irony of how the surveillance state could not prevent further police violence in the immediate aftermath of the uprising.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\u2014 Farah Habad<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Farah Habad is a Somali poet and communications advisor. About Farah Habad<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024 by Farah Habad. Originally published in <\/em>Poem-a-Day on 7 Aug 2024 by the Academy of American Poets.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – poets.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out of the ashes,
\nrose a helicopter.\u00a0
\nAn unwelcome phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":271322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-271321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271323,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271321\/revisions\/271323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}