#title An Elegy for Malachi Ritscher
#author Jacob A. Bennett
#SORTauthors Jacob A. Bennett;
#date 2009
#source [[https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/380-spring-2009/elegy-malachi-ritscher]]
#lang en
#pubdate 2014-05-11
#notes Fifth Estate #380, Spring 2009



[[3-s-fe-380-13-malachi-ritscher1.jpg]]

<quote>
Malachi, born Mark David,
</quote>

<quote>
wrote his own obituary. “Reportedly,”
</quote>

<quote>
he says, “his last words were
</quote>

<quote>
rosebud...oops,”
</quote>

<quote>
but what he means
</quote>

<quote>
is that he lived his life
</quote>

<quote>
like a saucer-faced magnolia flower,
</quote>

<quote>
a quick burst of bloom and
</quote>

<quote>
perfume early each spring
</quote>

<quote>
before the pink things wilt away,
</quote>

<quote>
falling to the fiery asphalt
</quote>

<quote>
of city summer sidewalks, mashed
</quote>

<quote>
underfoot and nothing left of
</quote>

<quote>
but dark oily streaks
</quote>

<quote>
where the thick petals fall like
</quote>

<quote>
flaking, rotten-soft flesh. But,
</quote>

<quote>
no,
</quote>

<quote>
no.
</quote>

<quote>
It was November,
</quote>

<quote>
November when he died.
</quote>

<quote>
A late tiger lily swallowed
</quote>

<quote>
by flame, he made it
</quote>

<quote>
look like suicide.
</quote>

On November 3, 2006, anti-war protester and Chicago art-rock videographer/archivist Malachi Ritscher self-immolated as a demonstration of opposition to the American wars. Near a sign that said, “Thou Shalt Not Kill--As Ye Sow So Shall Ye Reap,” and in front of a steel sculpture called “The Flame of Millenium,” Malachi, draped in an American flag, set himself on fire while his camera filmed his death. His actions received relatively little media coverage, despite (or because of) the poignant immensity of their meaning.