Best Minneapolis Poems
cigarette falling, snow-
ing in-
side the bronco,
buck-
ing ash two-digit scissors
reach-
ing like tongs
passenger’s eyes pop
driver
retrieves, revels, masters
the smoke; a joke
to the occupant
occupational hazard:
timing of
timber
window ajar; a trail
of chimney smoke
a cautionary tale:
don’t make my insides jiggle
jingle bells are merrily ringing
can’t help myself
previously, at the airport
man flies
off his luggage seat
goes splat in the turkey line
his phone’s fly-
ing
and i wonder why
i’m the only one
giggling
i leave the state in newfallen snow,
splash-
down on the tarmac
in Georgia
Nov 2022
Fifty years ago...the age of self-reflection
Hollow crumbs, shadows of proud vestiges
As minneapolis' jim crow vanished slowly,
Painfully, no longer admired at country club
Cocktail parties celebrating ribbon-cuttings
My family was inside and unaware of history
Working class achievement,
First deli in marble edifice
To corporate greed,
Connecting the longest Minneapolis
Skyway North to Washington Ave.
Dallas barons, puppet-masters
Guilding their empire on the backs
Of working class talent, eager to eat the
Crumbs of capitalism
Spoon (Mr Witherspoon) slaved to achieve the
Pinnacle of jim-crow "shoe-shine" stands in
Pillsbury's new world headquarters
Admired in his community
Proudly placed out front, then moved
To the back of a hair salon, ignoble-crushed
Under the weight of boardroom glare
jim-crow lost it's shine
Spoon
Lost
His
Leg
4-18-25
5:55am
eyes on cutting board —
thick sliced slathered with butter
scrumptious breads in hand
11/19/2018
Here in Minneapolis,
In weather bright and cool,
We crossed the Mississippi
Then we headed to the school.
Two students helped to guide us
To the campus place for art,
A museum by Frank Gehry,
Not a shabby place to start.
We checked out the ceramics,
Sculptures, paintings and the shop
Then in need of rest and sustenance,
We thought we'd take a stop.
And that's when we found Annie's,
Where a coffee malt and fries
(Both delicious!) perked us up -
A Minneapolis surprise.
See, my favorite part of travel
Is to find a local thing -
Be it food or craft or scenery -
Such pleasure does it bring!
And though sometimes it's familiar,
Like the fries and malt today,
If I'd been at home, I would not do
What's done when I'm away.
At 10,000 feet we rose through soft, voluminous canyons---
Dark billows whose slow swell was undisturbed by our passage.
At 20,000 feet, the first few glimpses---
Three short days, and the promise of Her full beauty is fulfilled,
And yet She is shy---
Below, patches of dull silver offer glances, graces---
A lake, a river, a pond, a stream---
Slyly She slides, slips from one silken scarf to the next---
She teases with hints---
Then, for three breathless seconds,
She swims boldly before me,
Her bright beauty bared---
All this time, with feet planted on Earth,
I have watched Her rule the heavens
And longed to embrace Her---
And now that I approach Her home,
I find Her down there, where I was---
Still laughing gently---
Still delicate, my deliciously desirable Diana---
Minority rule Apartheid
We, majority, asked:
How? blaming the victims of hate!
I heard Gandhi, Dr. King, Biko
II
Now we who have media, wealth, vote ...
Ask Lincoln to police Minneapolice (Mean Polis?)
We quote, "Be the change you want," but
Dream dead Saviors, hate Prez Obama, First Black
III
We were asked to solve (apart-hate) - apartheid
We did so, without the vote, money, or hate
We are hard - fair - on you for murderous policing:
Just don't kill unarmed Blacks. You need LINCOLN for that!
reaching for snowflakes —
sunflower in winter white
abandons the sun
12/14/2020
Strand’s Hi-ku 2
Walz fiddled while the city was burning
National Guard assist he was spurning
Just as Old Nero fiddled
Mayor Walz also diddled
His judgement was, oh, so undiscerning
They were never waiting for us girl.
They were one step ahead
though they never had a case.
Between the streets and highways
they would chase
and hunt us down like rats
just to put us "in our place."
Minneapolis is trending in the news,
all the big bad ICE men going round,
looking for some brown folks to detain.
I don't think that they will make it
'cause the people just won't take it
and they won't put up with hooligans again.
Oh no.
I recall the winter’s chilling wind
coming like a wave
in the air and round the stalls.
The children and the babies
snatched from hands
and the old folks wandering dazed
by the mall.
Minneapolis is trending in the news,
all the big bad ICE men going round,
looking for some Asians to detain.
I don't think that they will make it
'cause the people just won't take it
and they won't put up with ruffians again.
Oh no.
There will be another home for me
and I will seek it.
There will be another dream for me
and I will feel it.
I will drink the wine of liberty
and never let you catch me
facing down a gun.
And after all the times in my life,
after all the times of my life
I'll know I have won.
I will take my life into my hands
and I will live it.
I will win the respect in their eyes
or I will lose it.
I will have the freedom I desire
and my fervor flow like waters
by and by.
And after all the times in my life,
after all the times of my life
I will be forgetting them
and never ask why.
Minneapolis is trending in the news,
all the big bad ICE men going round,
looking for Somalis to detain.
I don't think that they will make it
'cause the people just won't take it
and they won't put up with treachery again.
Oh no.
Absolutely, this avoidable chaos
Is driving everybody very uncomfortable
Police rhymes with Minneapolis
But Ice does not rhyme with peace
Ice rhymes instead with lice
Ices rhymes with mice
And Ice rhymes with price
The insanity that is seeing at the table.
Ice rhymes with vice
Ice rhymes with skice
And Ice rhymes with Alcatraz
These yikes are causing an impasse
Which creates an awful mess
And an unnecessary chaos
In every street in many cities
Especially in Minneapolis.
I have been to Minneapolis
At the time, there was no trash, no snow and no ice
Many years ago, I also visited the Twin Cities
The people were nice and courteous
These days, there’s a mayhem every second in their streets
People are throwing heavy duty profanities
Such mother flowers in the face of the bad police officers
And the paramilitary bullies
Who act like judges, henchmen and offenders.
Gangsters like tigers are roaming the streets
Democracy is comatose and cruelty is working the beats
America has not seen so much atrocities
Since the turbulent sixties
When rightfully so, the often victimized minorities
Were fighting for equal rights and better opportunities
Ice rhymes with chaos, not peace
And ice rhymes with vice, not justice.
P.S. This poem is dedicated to the victims of all types of violence
And injustice.
Copyright © January 2026 Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved.
Hébert Logerie is the author of several poetry collections.
Snowballs met with red iron bullets
Someone
Has lost their compass
On the neighborhood streets of Minneapolis
The direction
Of wet splat on an officer’s back
To the metal response from a pistol splitting a windshield
Then a brain’s mesh
No one really knows
How the Albatross finds her way
Three times around the globe
Gliding on winds from one Pole to the other
What pulls her what pushes her
What power gets in her head
Ruffles her feathers and tickles her wings
Points her in one direction rather than another
It is to wonder
From the ice cold shale tumbled by glaciers
How she bares but one child every few years
While she shields with her feet and belly
A nest
From carbon bombardment
She can only fight with snowballs
Ducked under
By the President’s soldiers
Weighed down
With the oil and Crypto of Teflon vests cannisters badges radios
All our heads
The entire world
Spinning spinning out of control.
The wintry pall of cold Minneapolis,
two thirty-seven year olds,
shots thundered into an unexpected
eternity,
but youth promised to age,
to go on to another day.
A bleeding sacrifice,
suddenly the wintry pall of
cold Minneapolis,
became searingly bitter,
became unmercifully more frozen.
Sing of the lost peace,
in the candlelight and flowers
on the streets. ~
RITTENHOUSE NO HARM
HE CAME IN WITH A FIREARM
PRETTI BOUGHT THE FARM
Wolves
Tell the sheep:
You don’t see us
Our teeth our hunger our own pain
You won’t see what we must do
To you
You see life and love through the lense
Of human beings
Oh how sweet
How touching
Friends and neighbors
We see you
Through what we want
Your wool your blurry vision
Your care for the Lamb
It’d be best if the world went dark
The last light
Doused
By us for you
Make you blind and bleating
Then what will you do
But worship us?
NOT MAD SAID RENEE
THEN SHE TRIED TO DRIVE AWAY
HER SOUL WE DO PRAY