The Cop I want at Pride

Location

Loring Park
Minneapolis, MN
United States

The Cop I want at Pride

Sees the law as a growers guide

To a garden of a community

Written by amateurs

Who only slightly know what they’re doing

 

This cop gleans the gold from the rubbish

Like the preacher of the queer church

Distills it’s spirit

Discards its waste

This cop is no follower

But a leader in their own right

 

This cop would never immediately arrest a shoplifter

Of any color

But especially not a black one

For this cop lives the same air

And breathes it

Recognizes that often the tree is not dead

But that the soil is barren

And that the actions reflect not a moral character

But a character of the ground

This cop replants the tree in a pot

Temporarily while they fertilize the soil

So that the tree may grow into a mighty oak

The job of this cop is to garden

Not to judge the plants

The daily life of this cop

Is mostly volunteer work

 

This cop sees evil in no human

Rather a series of newton balls

Crashing into each other

This cop grabs a soft pillow

 

In seeing evil in no human

This cop discards their weapons of war

Leaving only one paltry weapon

For the most egregious of humans

The weapon for the rapists and the murderers

The safety is always on

 

When this cop arrives at pride

They do so without their uniform

Wary of the history of blood

The reality of trauma

This cop respects and mourns

The dead queers

Who die at the hands of cops

And so, to Pride, they come naked of power

 

This cop is wary of their ignorance

And acts against their biases

This cop knows the name and pronouns

Of each and every person

And is often invited to the weddings

Of their neighbors

 

This cop has no illusion of safety

And comes willingly into the arms of death

Rather than spill the blood

Of the potentially innocent

 

This cop has a reverence for rights

And honor

This cop can lie

But never does

This cop pursues the truth

Using only the methods

Of the truthful

 

This cop burns with the fires of justice

Will stand against other cops

For the sake of the community

Will stand against the law

For the sake of justice

This cop knows no loyalty to unjust policy

This cop knows no fellowship to their craft

This cop knows only the kinship

Of their people

 

If you meet such a cop

Please introduce me

Although I hear the academy

Rejects such cops

This poem is about: 
My community
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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