Finger-Painting

By EleCivil

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1. Though you’re gone I sometimes trace
2. Your steps across the sidewalk
3. To our painted handprints on the back
4. Of a neighborhood watch signpost
5. And old anarchy hearts drawn
6. By twelve-year-old fingertips
7. Declaring “love is freedom”
8. And beneath in slanted script
9. The addendum “Freedom is dead”
10. So transitive properties imply
11. That all we feel is posthumous
12. And so be it, then, let us lie!
13. Let us leave behind only tears
14. That we may salt the Earth,
15. And let this city simmer with knowledge
16. That once we stood here, both,
17. Once we stood with painted palms
18. Pressed against this freezing metal
19. And declared “Let us be dead!”
20. Left these locks to be dismantled
21. Just blustery autumnal arrogance
22. With peace to calm your violent eyes
23. Left wide with passionate precision
24. Locked upon a gate left drawn
25. To rest assured the class division
26. Locked away from twisting blues
27. The rescue efforts all delayed
28. So be it, then, “Let them take our hearts
29. Before we let their pulse be staid!”
30. But ‘Deviant’ they named you
31. And they ran you out of town
32. Then ‘Devious’ I named myself
33. And wore it as a crown
34. And took your place as head escape
35. For some still sought denial
36. Constructed new communities
37. Let shatter, just for style.