Lament for Minnesota

Before cancer cells debut in the society of a body,

They are ordinary citizens.
Normal. Typical. Harmonious.
The mutations that set them on a malevolent path

Also grant them a cruel talent of evasion.
They hide behind a mask of anonymity.

What keeps them warm on frozen twin-city streets?

What is the temperature of power?

The plot to mutate an art-filled organism into a war zone

Found now-distant relatives

Bewildered. Abandoned yet spurred on by
A moral drive to honor fallen neighbors;
To bear witness to brutality.
This immune-based disorder—

A body politic lawlessly attacking, not defending itself—

Will be encoded in the warbling memories of young caged cells.

The bonds of truth and empathy are covalent,
And the love of community cannot be abducted.

Yet as the mercury has fallen,
Mercutios have fallen.

They were once one of us.

JENNIFER FIRESTONE