Twenty reasons to stop trying

Cops on horseback, cops on foot, on bicycle and motorcycle, in marked and unmarked cars. Security stationed on each street corner, helicopters in the air.

Sirens on the streets, paramedics push through traffic; a fire alarm goes off in the mall. Delegates in, homeless out, empty condos fill the sky.

Barricade off closed-door business, let black limousines coast through chain link fences towards pristine hotels; broadcast arrivals on the news.

Let the protesters tear the banks down, throw bricks through windows, eat Front Street alive. Chip off the concrete foundation between skyscrape basements and underground subway stops, feed it to famished mouths.

We need it now more than ever, all ribcage hunger for the beast. We’re dying here, he says: Welcome to the Harper years.