The crucible on 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis
forges new life from ashes: the phoenix rises.
MPD heretofore un-defunded,
roots of grass heretofore unheeded, untended,
a wildfire now
readies the soil for fresh harvest—
sowing the seeds
of another world.

At the crucible on 3rd Precinct, Black Power
fists raised in the air,
silhouettes in shadow
backlit by Wendy’s burning bright,
Arby’s alight
for the Memorial Day barbeque—
protesters manning grills
burning the meats of production,
destroying their means of oppression.

The crucible on 3rd Precinct births new life:
protesters in a state, calmly jubilant, ignite
a purge to save this country’s soul.
Their (whose?) country found dead
on slavery and conquest. So now,
dragon magic burns away
the throne:
no more “good” policing,
no more “mad” khaleesi,
no more “democratic” empire—
not at home, not abroad.

The crucible on 3rd Precinct begins the fire
that burns the city that was
theirs that was never theirs,
almost like it was never there,
burned to the ground, razed—
raised fists raised left, raised right.

At the crucible on 3rd Precinct, a unit of policing
burning like the big bang,
burning like a pig roast—
white supremacist
fear filling the air
with char and smoke and soot and sooth
cleansing and opening lungs choking
on state brutality.

The crucible on 3rd Precinct is a corrective, a palliative,
an offering, a reconsidered perspective, on
“State as Pig: Notes on the Prison-Industrial Complex
Bringing Home the Bacon and Killing Us Too.”
Turning people into p(r)awns
like on the 9th District—
trigger happy, trigger sad, trigger warned.
Humans? Not really. Pigs? Not really
anything but anti-Black necro-capitalist
cyborgs wielding guns and legacy.

In the crucible on 3rd Precinct, destruction
is the first step of creation—
birthed in the alchemical fire of abolition,
another world is possible.

Ghazah Abbasi is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

For more on Antipode’s “Conjunctural Insurrections” series – an experiment to amplify voices often unheard and invisibilised in politics, daily life, and academic discourse – see https://antipodeonline.org/2020/06/23/conjunctural-insurrections/