[ Colorado poet José A. Alcántara has a thing or two to say
about the difference between so-called professional revolutionaries
and mere amateurs. ] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

PROFESSIONAL RIOTERS  
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José A. Alcántara
July 1, 2021
Plainsongs

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_ Colorado poet José A. Alcántara has a thing or two to say about
the difference between so-called professional revolutionaries and mere
amateurs. _

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Professional Rioters

By José A. Alcántara

_While those who were arrested all live in Erie, we believe that there
were professional rioters present from out-of-town because we
overheard them asking for directions._

Dan Spizarny, Chief of Police, Erie, Pennsylvania

That’s who smashed the coffee shop windows in Erie,

set the dumpster fires in Portland,

toppled the Confederate statues in Charleston.

As a professional rioter myself – proud member of the ARA

(American Rioter’s Association) – I must confess

that not all of these uprisings are of our doing.

Rumor has it that there are some disgruntled school teachers,

some unhappy gas station attendants, a few radicalized

librarians taking over their neighborhood streets. 

Much as we professionals like to take the high ground,

I have to admit, some of these amateurs know how

to carry a sign, how to light a fire, how to pick up a stone.

Now, Officer, could you point me to that paint store again?

José A. Alcántara lives in western Colorado. He has worked as a
bookseller, mailman, commercial fisherman, electrician, baker,
carpenter, studio photographer, door-to-door salesman, and math
teacher. His poems have appeared in _American Life in Poetry_, _Poetry
Daily, The Southern Review_, _Beloit Poetry Journal_, _Plainsongs_,
_Spillway_, _Rattle,_ _RHINO_, _The American Journal of Poetry_, and
the anthologies, _99 Poems for the 99%, and America, We Call Your
Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience. _His poem, _Divorce_, won
the 2021 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from _Rattle. _His first
poetry collection, _The Bitten World_, is forthcoming from Tebot Bach.

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