Where I come from people post memes of Martin Luther King
with “Never Rioted” and #allivesmatter stamped under his folded palms.
In these pictures he is always unmoving—silent—alone. Never linked
at the elbows with other protesters. Line after line shutting down traffic
from Selma to Montgomery—marching. Never yanked away from a sit-in.
Hand smashed flat against the lunch counter in resistance. Arm twisted
behind his back as police push him down the street. Never with handcuffs
locked around his wrists. Never a megaphone pressed to his lips. Never
his raised fist. Never slunk behind the railing of the Lorraine Hotel. Never
his blood scrubbed from the balcony. Never the crowds laying hands
on his open casket. Never his funeral wagon pulled by two mules. Never
the garlands and candles. Never the cities alight in the days after his
murder. Never with the hashtag, “Riots are the language of the unheard.”
________
Abigail Carl-Klassen’s work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Cimarron Review, Guernica, Aster(ix)
