State poet reflects on Capitol attack and polarization
Even the state poet had trouble putting it into words.
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - If last Wednesday’s breach of the U.S. Capitol left you speechless, Nebraska state poet Matt Mason knows how you feel. But even he had a hard time putting that feeling into words.
Mason wrote “The Start,” over the past couple years. On Sunday, the New York Times published his work following the riot in Washington D.C.
“I think it kind of covers the climate that seemed to be developing a couple years ago, and moves toward what happened last week,” Mason said. “I try to write poems that will reach somebody, not just someone with a PhD in literature, I want to reach, you know, the person working at the Kwik Shop.”
Below is “The Start” in its entirety:
“It probably started
in a whisper, a murmur,
a low tone hardly caught by the papers,
a sticker, a poster,
a brick wall with slogans in fresh black paint
because
it probably started with a shove,
some bluster, a gunshot,
crushed fingers, it probably started
with a speech that caught the right ears
on an otherwise happy day,
yellow flowers in a wooden stand on the sidewalk,
red apples, radio
trying hard to smooth out the mood,
kid hurrying past, thinking,
God, is that man on the corner
shouting
about me,
pulls his hat low,
it probably started
with another man
drunk on swagger,
it probably started
with a small crowd
coaxing exciting lies,
it probably started
with a neighborhood’s head bowed
as the drone grows each day
(though they’ll claim
it came
in a quick, monstrous surprise).”
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