April Poem-A-Day 5: The story of Harvey Milk!

The story of Harvey Milk!
Now without all the nasty rage!

I’m watching Milk
remove anger,
subtract outrage,
reduce community
to a bandwagon
hitched to his star.

It’s as if the “White Nights”
never happened,
as if rioting never bloomed
after Dan White was sentenced
to only seven years
for murdering two people.

(White’s lawyers used
the “Twinkie Defense,”
claiming he had
“diminished capacity”
from eating too much junk food.)

The movie leaves me with
an earnest, almost sexless, man
who single-handedly rallied
apathetic and uninvolved voters
by appealing to Democratic ideals.

This is the mainstream Amerikan
version, a cult of personality biopic
which conveniently leaves out
a decade of community organizing.

Tame the scary homosexuals,
defang the radicals,
pasteurize the milieu
until it’s safe and unthreatening.

Raging queens and dykes
still wait for justice.
Don’t be surprised if
a brick in a handbag
is a stylish accessory
when fighting begins.

Depend on it.

© 2009, php