Seven-Year Cicadas Poem by Frank Avon

Every seven years or so
they zoom in again;
they leave their hulls
scattered around,
like plastic confetti
littering the ground.
Most of us never know
when they'll soar again
or what form they'll take.
'These cyclical eruptions, '
one honest journalist said.
who's called a comedian
among a Blitzkrieg of talkers.
'Depressing in their similarity,
predictability and intractability.'

It's time for the cicadas again.
Once they were labeled a Tea Party,
dressed and painted as Mohawks,
not a lawless mob,
but Sons of Liberty,
a principled protest
against an unjust Law,
according to Samuel Adams,
hoodlums and thugs, rioting,
boarding ships of Big Business,
looting, sinking 342 chests of tea,
an uncivil act of disobedience,
that led before too long
to an armed Revolution.
Sons of Liberty
became the Minute Men,
aiming their firearms
(not just bricks, not just bottles)
at officers of the law,
clad in their officers' red uniforms,
lined up and on the march
to put down this sedition.
The seven-year cicadas
had to be obliterated.

Those Mohawks became
our first American Heroes,
those thugs and hooligans.

Oppression often goes by
the name of Law,
'taxation without representation';
the minute protesters
pick up a bottle or a brick,
they become thugs and hooligans.
Only when they win
an outright Revolution
and start a new Nation
do they earn respect
as the Minute Men.

News media and mayors
call her the Mother of the Year:
she slaps her teenager
and sends him home
from the scene of protests.
Because he's a thug? a hooligan?
Or because he might be
the next Freddie Gray,
his spinal cord severed,
no credible witnesses?
A question not to be asked
by the news Blitz-krieg.

Peaceful protests
don't get headlines:
that requires a fire.

Two questions reporters
almost never ask:

Why are the runners running?
Why are the gunners gunning?

Peaceful protesters
are always asked,
How can you condone
this violence,
these thugs and hooligans
(even when they don't) .
Heroic officers of the Law
(and there are many of them)
are very rarely asked,
How can you condone
this violence,
when the perpetrator
is 'one of their own.'
'These officers
could have done no wrong.'

Which 'threat of violence'
is most publicized?
The 'rough ride'
in a police van?
Or the stone thrown
through a window?
Which most likely
to be investigated?
Which dismissed
as a mere incident?

Armed forces of the Law
break spines;
most protestors today
break windows,
loot liquor stores.

Which one must fear most
the loss of life and limb?
the hooligans, or the officers?
Which one is more likely
to be arrested & prosecuted?
Which one is more likely
to be protected & excused?
Which one is more likely
to have an unpayable bail?
What's the official story
likely to be if
there's no bystander's video?
Well, of course, it's simple:
the hooligan's insane;
he killed himself, didn't he?

Guess what?
The Tea Party
has become a political party,
one that stands
for Law and Order,
these Sons of Liberty,
they claim,
are Sons of Licentious.
a Beer Party
with their own Sam Adams.

Every seven years or so
- these cicadas of violence -
they erupt again
and get headlines
and 24-hour coverage
and the media Blitz-krieg
breaking the curfew
(Freedom of the Press!) ,
themselves provoking riots,
whether consciously
or unconsciously,
showing thugs and hooligans
in action, in close-ups
(such trauma is drama) .

Let the cameras pan
all the streets of the city.
Hundreds, even thousands,
of armed officers in
riot helmets and shields,
warriors' armed vehicles
(no redcoats now,
not one lone Paul Revere):
hundreds and hundreds
of media with microphones,
armed with hand-held
cameras, where the fires
are blossoming
(the brighter the blossoms
the costlier the commercials) :
and dozens of protesters,
mostly women screaming,
a few teenagers
daredevils
strolling jauntily
in front of Officers of the Law
(but more important)
strolling jauntily
as teenagers do,
in front of the Blitz-kreig
of cameras.

Oh, yes, before too long
the cicadas will fly again
for a few days, weeks maybe,
then what will be left
will be their hulls,
tattered scattered shattered.

Then where are the Police Forces?
Strolling the peaceful streets
of working neighborhoods?
Asking 'How may we be of help? '
Where will the Blitz-kreig be?
Asking neighborhood leaders,
'What can we do? '
'Why do you think these things happen? '
'Who are the oppressed?
and who the Oppressor? '

Rest assured
(if impassivity can really be rest) :
sooner or later,
the cicadas will rise again.
Send in the armed vehicles.
Send in a blitz of cameras.
Blazes will blossom,
hulks will litter
the streets.
Windows will be broken.
Tea chests
hurled overboard.
Wait and see.

Hooligans or heroes?
Thugs or Sons of Liberty?
Who are the Minute Men
protesting injustice?
Who are the redcoats
upholding the Law?

Watch CNN.