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Paint These Streets
- University of Arizona Press
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58 Paint These Streets For Frank Big Bear Paint these streets, paint them over. Paint grass acid green over gray asphalt, hot orange rivers over white chalk marks, indigo clouds over yellow police tape. Paint these streets. Paint them bright. Where those dive-bars once bled out tumbling figures, in senseless colors, and dull shades of death in the alley, under the bridge, beside the highway—paint it over. Paint it all over. Paint it so it lights up—sends fear howling off and away, like the monster dog it is, yelping at fire, heart’s passion, action. Paint these streets. Paint them alive. Where ones we loved once stumbled, dying senselessly, drained to blank canvasses—those very stoops, curbs, rails: Paint them full, vibrating with strokes of purple, pink, cerise. Paint their faces. Paint them lit from within, composed of fantastic leaves, shards of jewels, cut-glass beads, and the radiance of survival, of a people thriving. Paint these streets, paint them over. Tell another story, one that does not forget what formed the muddy storm 59 in the background, the contrast to today’s lightning strikes— organized bolts of energy, all our work, what it takes to transform. Paint these streets. Paint them over with vivid possibilities. Neon green, brilliant blue—day-glo lives striding home, where we are home, in the strobe that lights up ordinary lives in work, in art, in motion. [3.81.222.152] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:25 GMT) ...