Minneapolis

by Stuart McFarlane / January 18th, 2026

It never rains in downtown Minneapolis.
In winter, though, sometimes there is
ice lying out there in the streets.
Black ice lying. Quite lethal.
For drivers it is dangerous;
out there on the streets.
The crack of gunshots splits the morning air.
A woman lies slumped in her car.
Shot dead.
She was once a mother.
ICE are trained in the use of firearms.
ICE are trained to shoot to kill.
ICE are trained to ask questions later.
It’s all there in the manual.
There in the black and white.
We, Joe Public, are free
to ask questions too.
After all, this is America.
We are free to ask;
and they are free to lie.
‘What you see in the video
is not what you think you see.’
This is what they tell us.
And they are really quite good at it.
‘We all know about AI.
How it can manipulate the truth.’
So they feed in another lie,
just to sow further doubt.
‘The pictures are shocking
and we regret any loss of life.
Thankfully the ICE agent
is recovering from his injuries.’
But it is the phrase ‘manipulate the truth’
that lingers longest.
‘There is other TV footage,’ they gamely persist.
This comes from The White House.
From the liar-in chief.
‘But we’re not able to show that.
For security reasons, you understand.’
Yes, we understand.
It never rains in downtown Minneapolis.
Man, it pours.

Stuart McFarlane has spent many years, both abroad and in the UK, teaching English. In the UK this mainly involved teaching Esol to refugees and asylum seekers. He is now semi-retired and so can devote more time to writing poetry. He has had poems published in local magazines and online publications such as 'Borderless Journal', based in Malaysia and 'Culture Matters' and 'The Recusant', based in the UK. Read other articles by Stuart.

This article was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.