Skip to content

Love and Rage at the Executioner’s Ball

The riot squad policeman
bellowed
at the young
hyacinth-headed woman
“Get back on the sidewalk!”

As others locked arms
to block the street
she paused
looked at him
with tender calm
sighed a smile
and asked:
“Does this mean
you don’t love me
anymore?”

He reddened
beneath
the plexiglass shield

She saddened
“We’re breaking up,
aren’t we?”

A surprising silence
amid the ruckus

– Marcus Rediker
The Republican National Convention 2000
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania