Photography © Shannon O’Connor

 

Town Hall in Malden High School with Senator Edward Markey

At the town hall, Ed Markey said,
“Donald Trump brings out the Malden in me!”
What exactly does that mean, to bring out the Malden in someone?

What I think the Senator means is the Malden in someone
is the part that won’t take any garbage from anyone, who won’t
back down from a fight, and is not afraid
to say exactly what they think.

Is that what the Malden in me means?

The Malden in me is the one who takes the train to go somewhere
else to where I think more interesting things are happening.

But does what the Senator say still ring true?

Malden has gone from dollar stores and pawn shops
to microbreweries and yoga studios,
the two cultures comingling, and the toughness and grit
could be rubbing away.

Has Malden gone soft? Have we lost
our edge?

Does losing the edge mean becoming educated enough to fight
with words instead of fists, to view injustice as something we can
work against, and try to change, instead or waving our arms around,
and getting in someone’s face?

Senator Markey’s Malden has transformed, but an undercurrent of anger
still bubbles under the Malden River.

Does frosting like attractive sidewalks cover the pain that some people
could never afford their parents’ houses, that there is no way to recover
          from
never having enough?

The Malden in us gets angry when we think of how we struggle to get by,
because everything we earn and have gets eaten up by
fish in bigger rivers than the Malden River, but we still have
The New England Coffee Company which leaks the burnt smell
of roasting coffee, when the wind blows the right
way and we can smell the beans, we know we have
the right to be angry,
and the Malden in us will let everyone and the Senator
realize that nobody can mess with us when the Malden is released
like a roaring dragon
flying through the city
ready to take over
everything it can
until the flames extinguish Pleasant Street,
and the Malden Center T station,
there will be nothing left
but an egg carton full
of the broken shells of our dreams.

 

Shannon O’Connor has an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She has been published previously in Oddball Magazine, as well as 365 Tomorrows, Sci-Fi Shorts, Ginsoko LIterary Journal, and others. She lives in Malden, Massachusetts, and does not drink coffee from the New England Coffee Company.