Poem, “Infrastructure”, published in inaugural issue of LIGHT Journal
Excited to have my poem, “Infrastructure”, included in the inaugural issue of LIGHT Journal. The poem was written shortly after the police murder of Daunte Wright in 2021, in the midst of political debate about public infrastructure.
Abstract
National policy discourse concerning funding for physical infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges, transportation) and public health infrastructure (e.g. capacity, modernization, workforce development) have grown over the last couple of years. Receiving less attention is policy discourse regarding the expansion of the policing and surveillance state, even though many jurisdictions already spend upwards of 40% of their budgets on related matters. Public health, as a field, has remained curiously silent on this. And interestingly, despite racialized police violence being the core impetus for health jurisdictions and organizations declaring racism a public health crisis,[1] policing itself has not been declared a public health crisis. At one point in 2020 it was estimated that COVID-19 had killed 1/1000 Black Americans [2] (now 1/281)—a chilling statistic matched only by the grim reality that 1 in 1,000 Black men in America can expect to be killed by police over their lifetime [3]. And yet, after 61 years of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, public health has yet to adequately (accurately) name, track, and count this violence.
This poem was written in the days/weeks after police killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright. The fatal encounter was brought about, amongst other trivial reasons with roots in racialized policing practices, because of an air freshener hanging from a rearview mirror. Daunte’s killer was convicted—a rarity [4]—yet sentenced to just two years. This poem, in the tradition of counterstorytelling, suggests the imperative of public health to witness, name, (re)count, and countervail the structural racism embedded within, engineered by, and executed through the infrastructure that is racialized police violence. In the case of Daunte Wright, an infrastructure worthy of 39% of the city budget, while health is worthy of just 4% (Brooklyn Center, MN 2023 Annual Budget).
Infrastructure
a bridge over troubled water always
ices before road, and sometimes in
spring, Black Ice thaws beneath old
maple, spreads wider, quietly refreezes
cracking the cartilage enjoining sides –
you decide of what: residue, remains
this day forward will always smell like
dollar stores, wet mural paint and pre-
rolls that burn us into slumbers, still,
no knock- off ear plugs could ever
block the sound of tires clutching for
something other than ice on a bridge
made of glass; after all, these aren't actual
"accidents" according to epidemiologists,[i]
these are probabilities that mostly make
the word "probably" sound like we don't
know the difference between asphalt and
our backs: bending against their design –
that we lay us down, point our shoulder
blades toward god, flex our triceps and hold
fast ‘til our fingers snap toward Saturn,
exposed bone catching sunlight just right
to blind passerby into believing that it's the
driver that failed; and engineers rejoice
[i] See: Edwards et al (2019): https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793; Lett et al (2020): https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/4/394
Notes:
1. Mendez DD, Scott J, Adodoadji L, Toval C, McNeil M, Sindhu M. Racism as Public Health Crisis: Assessment and Review of Municipal Declarations and Resolutions Across the United States. Front Public Health. 2021;9. Accessed September 20, 2022. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.686807
2. APM. Color of Coronavirus: COVID-19 deaths analyzed by race and ethnicity. APM Research Lab. Published 2022. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race
3. Edwards F, Lee H, Esposito M. Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2019;116(34):16793-16798. doi:10.1073/pnas.1821204116
4. Stinson PM, Wentzlof CA. On-Duty Shootings: Police Officers Charged with Murder or Manslaughter. BGSU Policy Integr Res Group. Published online 2019:2. https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/health-and-human-services/document/Criminal-Justice-Program/policeintegritylostresearch/-9-On-Duty-Shootings-Police-Officers-Charged-with-Murder-or-Manslaughter.pdf