‘Show me your papers’ 
a once cartoonish phrase 
from many a 
World War II movie but

Minneapolis is not
some war movie in any
classic cinematic sense
only in real-world 
application

real life villains 
under guise of legitimacy
sent by other villains 
hellbent on retribution for 
political sins of
 
decency, empathy
democratic norms and 
ever waning freedoms
while those comprising the
‘We voted for this!’ crowd
throw LOL emojis at 
videos of brutality
memorials at murder sites
decry those who resist
fools, snowflakes,
anarchists

meanwhile hiding behind 
turbo-charged nativism,
nationalism, other
warped theology

‘the greatest of these is love’
strikes them as passe
dangerous weakness
not from the pages of our
shared books

so they will regurgitate 
parroted lines
decrying ours and
I just want to ask them  -  
‘Show me your papers...
 
All the pages 
not just your 
cherry-picked verses"
 

– Mark Lucker
© 2026