Tension

From Twitter: “The vibe at Union Square is calm, not like the tension this morning”

Protesting is intense.

(except when they take our tents. Then it is with/out-tense)

Then the tension is

Between the warm tomato spinach bread I baked the protestors for their breakfast, that I passed over the police barricade snug in Ziploc bags because I was scared to walk between the nameless men in dark uniforms and day-glo vests who guarded the only entrance to Liberty…

…and the cold water I squirted into the throats of the protestors, whose arms were linked in a human chain, backs pressed against each other, facing the future in both directions. Surprisingly cheerful.

The tension in our bodies, responding to shouting and shoving men in dark uniforms. The tension between what we have been told is true and important and what we perceive is true and we feel is important.

The tension between what we have been told democracy looks like, and what we have shown it to be.

Warm bread, cool water. They are important.

 Democracy, freedom, they are important.

Tension in the bowstring, before it is let loose. That is important.

An arrow into the belly of the beast. A thousand arrows let fly.

Ten thousand more to follow.

Sink their teeth into the doughy mass that protects the selfish and the greedy from the natural consequences of their actions.

That is history

Being chewed and swallowed.

The ripping open of history to plunge new words into our mouths so we can speak

Truth.

…then, without any protection…

We are out of tents, out of shelter

Out of bounds and out of breath

From running to catch up with the truth that

Will always be just out of reach—

And we are surprisingly cheerful.