Solomon- OWS a sign on the side
note this was Occupy Wall Street 2011
Solomon stood on the side
behind a relaxed bunch of
NYPD with his sign
“give us back his ten days”
or something like that
an adamant man
“The NYPD is the best Police Force
in the whole world”.
I did not have words of disagreement
so he let me picture him
the last picture taken
before someone
didn’t see who
didn’t see who
with more accident than incident
more accident than incident
backed into me
camera fell broke gone
fell broke gone
cops, maybe he was one of them
maybe they were just his friends
cops were docked
and he gave the word the sounding
like the kind of punch
you felt twenty years later
and pointed to the area
sitting still on your
Brooklyn Bar stool
Cops were docked
ten days
for pepper spray
ten days
sounding like half a life time
half a life line
that half that could still be fun
Cops were docked ten days
for pepper spray
and right then Solomon
showed those eyes
that you’d want him in an alley fight
and, if not,
want the other way out
Cops were docked 10 days
sometimes
you need to give them
pepper spray
it’s not like the OWS
were all non violent
not like
pepper spray
is always the
wrong thing to do
not like
pepper spray is always wrong
not like
pepper spray is wrong
Solomon was white
I could of said right off
Solomon was right
I could of said
but that won’t ever change
not that it matters
it’s not black
and white
But Blue
and the not-Blue
Solomon started to look around
wondering if his words
said what was in his heart
Solomon was right
Solomon started to look around
wondering if his words
said what was in his heart
wondered who I really was
forced himself to take a
few short breaths
Solomon switched to the recent
“Staten Island stuff”
someone
wrongly arrested
a black teenager
for being a black teenage
and acting
suspect y
“Now that was wrong
something needed to be done
and was”
At what seemed to be an end
Bob asked Solomon
if you are your Commander
and you have your Cops using
Pepper Spray
and it’s wrong
and it’s on Camera
and you know the New York Post
and The New York Daily News
and half the bleeding heart liberals
are all gonna be on this
and stay on this
like maggots on a corpse
and you know
it’s not like a stiff
that you can just make go away
or put in a jersey swamp
What would you do
how would you handle this
what would be a fair way to go
Bob asked this question three times
Solomon kept his answer inside
maybe the earshot
the eyeshot of his fellow cops
maybe—–
Only walking away
did I realize
I had asked
the wrong question
Bob Small
From 10-24 revised 11-6
robertthesmall 