Here it goes: i love you mom

i love you, city— i loved being what we were then

and what we are now, too, that’s the gift from all of you,

It’s a poll about candy, and a memory

for girls and, for us

holding onto mom’s skirts, from the van in the hot parking lot

into the cool, department store: SEARS, things were in our budget

Pick out dresses for Easter Sunday, and sets to wear

for school graduation, the limit you’ll spend is 100 each

Generous, a week of work, at least

Are swedish fish a bright memory for other 80’s kids?

vote yes or no, below.

For us, yes, because my mom bought them at SEARS

in south Minneapolis

My true, true, true, truest home

Somehow (impossibly? fictionally? coincidentally?

HOW?!!!)

Racking my brain: IT CAN’T BE RANDOM

HOW MY HOME is the war site

THE WAR FOLLOWed us Stalking our black and brown friends

STINKY CLAWS, THE OLD, white ENTRAILS

WHITE DEVILS FOLLOWed us, seeking witches to burn

Overview: #Minneapolis in 2026 makes me personally proud— I’m yelling,

“GO, HOMETOWN! KEEP #VIOLATING #DHS #ICE #illegal #OCCUPATION!”

Minneapolis isn’t perfect, has a bloody history, not

easy for any black or “othered” people there, or anywhere

The #resistance has been unbelievable in response

How they been fighting back, how they been clever

#clown them with nonviolent #pranks and #traps like throwing #snowballs and #homealone movie type shit- your creativity for peace deserves a nobel prize!

(And they gave you one)

THAT keeps our #spiritsup #kopfhoch —this means keep your head up

in German. German is not an evil language,

Of course there is a white devil there, born as Jesus died

But Americans who judge Germans

are ignorant of their own history.

The Nazis and the Stasi came AFTER American slavery

and Jim Crow Apartheid.

Not all German people are bad.

European boundaries are not the real boundaries.

OK, swedish fish hold the motherish memories, the city, the summer,

Chicago Ave. and Lake Street, our neighborhood.

My mom, our mother so clearly wanted to get what we wanted

to please me, shopping, she and I would would go on and on,

store to store, she’d increase the amount of of money she’d spend on an outfit

for ME, just so I’d feel quality cute, in something that looked great on me.

Our parents wanted to give us what we dreamed of, even

fancy college, fancy degrees, time spent on adventures

Of course, they started with each other, making silly dreams come true

Taught us the laughter of survival, insanity when the wind blows you back.

Minneapolis is not perfect, the names name the genocide, as a place

that always belonged to others, Dakota and Lakota

All the names prove their history, may they last and someday flourish.

I swam in Nikomis, at sunset, my baptism, and I miss it, the lake.

I miss the time of candy at SEARS, the terrible journey to air,

Mom crashing out, getting mad, dragging us out of there, then

get us an ice cream cone to cool down, laugh it off-

that was ours, we had something.