Long Minneapolis Poems

Native, Liteskin, sun kissed
smiles
sit, talk, get to know me 
a while
for I am not my skin and 
even though the tan pigment
runs deep
I am my heart, thoughts
and actions,reflection of
company
I keep
A car accident took
my Homies brother...

Read More

From New York City to LA; New Orleans to Chicago and Minneapolis                       ...

Read More

I once traveled around the U. S. on a Greyhound bus,
My wife thought I was crazy, but she made little fuss,
It was, by far, the most awesome adventure I ever took
Three changes of clothes, lots...

Read More

I remember one night last winter when we thought it was snow falling, but we were wrong. It was ice.

We went out that night and stayed out too late -- unusual for folks our age....

Read More

Overflow of the waters of Lake Itaska
You carry your wealth to the waiting world, 
Mighty Mississippi, half savior, half sewer, 
Plant and animal wastes, dissolved minerals, 
Venting prairie deluge, dividing a Nation, 
Exposed aquifer of...

Read More

My ideas are in hiding 
Afraid of the secret police
For they are in Kansas City
My poems are not wanting to goosestep
I hear glass breaking
It does not wake me up at first
But when it does I...

Read More

Martial law inapropos to stave, staunch,
and stem police brutality,
nevertheless commander in chief
will violently barrel ahead
particularly when blatant iniquities
flagrantly heaped upon
innocent dark skinned human bodies,
who far to often get accosted, beaten, choked
without justice, but
judged guilty merely...

Read More

I know too much about racism, from folks like you and folks in our governments, of all colors. Yes, power corrupts anyone and everyone, but there is no TRIBALISM LIKE European and Caucasian tribalism. Unlike...

Read More

He gasped for breath under the brutal feet.... George Floyd, the black man at Minneapolis, a hapless victim of color prejudice. One more in the list... maligned for centuries, casting dark shadows in the dim...

Read More

Death by misadventure.
That is sadly how 
most Black lives 
wrongfully and unnecessarily
lost at the hands of police officers
are written off these days.
It's become the new normal.
Yet another Black life
has been snuffed out 
while in the...

Read More

The inhuman white creatures followed him,
The dreaded beast among them struck,
The black man fell on the street like a wounded stag,
He was so weak now, like a shrunk cedar.

Knee as harsh as tropical grass,
Hard, sharp,...

Read More

The 9-11 terrorists are lowest scum, for they did their evil against USA and the innocents of this world, in the name of their god. George Floyd and I are as much their victim as...

Read More

...early Spring walk around 3.2mi. Lake Calhoun...so named after controversial industrialist sotten with checkered past...movement underway to return name to Native American Dakota "Bde Maka Ska" White Earth Lake.


 Purple Finches trill their soothing song
to...

Read More

New York baseball fans had to face reality.
Coast to coast travel attained practicality.
Jet planes carried us west within a day.
As a result, the Giants and Dodgers both went away.
The Giants headed for San Francisco, and...

Read More

Look around and watch people stroll by,
our physical differences are quite evident:
tall, short, fat, skinny, happy, unhappy,
miserable, friendly, insensite and naughty...
isn't the image of the Human Race imperfect,
should we blame it on the lack of...

Read More

HER SEDUCTIVE VOICE

Her seductiveness rang out; in the still of night
Every man listening out for her, shines his light

She was a story teller on a pirate radio, no ads
Moved from place to place coming with...

Read More

Written By:  D. Collins 1/5/2018

We are taking no shorts on this time around.
Respect will be given when we roll into town.
Empathy is what they say got us the first Super Bowl.
Katrina was in '05,...

Read More

In my early teens (late 60's)
I remember it all
began
in my mind

Dad was driving us into
downtown Minneapolis
for church I think,

up ahead, a block or so,
the bob-lights on top of
2 cop cars was twirlin'
and  speakers were...

Read More

Carpe Diem

If Heaven and Earth were to pass away
and leave my words to stand on their own
they would collapse from lack of support

like that bridge in Minneapolis,
taking my friends and family with it.

My words go...

Read More

He vomited bitter words:

Please, I can't breathe
My stomach hurts
My neck hurts
Everything hurts 
They are going to kill me 

It is the 21st century
But his color was his crime
Spoke like a lonely caged bird 
Lost his...

Read More

Waiting Down at The Station to catch the 2:05
I thought I heard your voice calling out my name
but I guess it was just the chatter of the crowd or 
the noise inside my brain, my...

Read More

Prayers descend like acid rain from 
oligarch-soaked manchurians, stumping 
for elected office, praising hybrid 
demigods, passing out vouchers to the 
peasants.

A slow rumbling-
 part of the night-sounds-of-curfew;
descends like fire ants.

Cleaners of the guilt, hidden in...

Read More

Written By:  D. Collins 11/9/21


In my mind I have this picture of Ahmaud Arbery.
Being tarred, feathered, then hung from a tree.
Hunted like a runaway slave with dogs in pursuit.
Five-O treated the scene like "Good...

Read More

Chapter 10: Modern Dams & Locks

A highpoint of our whole trip, a lock and dam,
Originally St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis - St. Paul.
Can you imagine how Spanish explorers felt
Entering California’s Golden Gate for the first...

Read More

Why does USA still protect the Saudis whose travel documents - in some cases to learn flying in the USA but not to focus on landing skills - allowed the 9-11 terrorists to kill 3000...

Read More