Beautiful World

I have lived my life in fear and found no solace there. I learned that even with your head in the sand your other end is left blowing defenselessly in the wind. I have also learned since not to go marching into darkness just to prove you're not afraid of things you should be. I'm on guard with good reasons these days (knowing the worth of my own dead weight) and I must balance my values of freedom and dignity on a regular basis. Minneapolis, war-front that I love.
I have learned the importance of community, having support systems in place to watch our own backs and back alleyways. And the 1st use for society is survival. Skills shared openly and resources for everyone not owned, sold or traded. Or at least I imagine it could be like this. I've learned the power of our dreams and local politics.
And I have learned to be patient, and when not to wait around for permission to change because change is inevitable and the only question is direction, and yes, I am here today with an agenda. I wanna set it right and see what happens. I want to get it right, and give it some room. A little sunlight and attention to bask in, to bloom.
See what becomes of creation when you give peace a chance. A plot of land in a shared space under my care can flourish. We are so rich when we work together and for everyone. We are so rich when we work together and for everyone that it bares repeating. I go on, believing this and then making it come true. And I've seen it work and so have you. And isn't it a more beautiful world when we do?

The truth was...

The truth was her hey day
wasn't so great.
Got a lot a minor
details piling up and
going hungry's never coming
into style. Meanwhile,
the clock is counting off
sounding off like a line of
fresh soldiers to the front.
Ready for glory and settling
for a gun.

Generations to come

My hopeless parents
put your faith in me, for I
have abandoned you, and your ways
I watched you fall long before
I ever learned the word for
Revolution.

To the generations to come: wash
the lie from my stories
and pardon my ignorant blunders- the ones
I learned from the hopeless
long before you ever found
the debt we left you in.

Life without TV

There is a triangular park across the street from my apartment window and in the summer, sometimes, the homeless sleep on the benches-all out in the open-and I watch them, and they watch me. Or sometimes it's just the skaters and their film crew. The occasional strolling mom and toddler pair, there to play in a patch of grass in broad daylight.

Its winter now, so the statue wears a shaggy white coat like pigeon droppings gotten out of hand. The boot prints pave the many ways already taken. Put them together to make a dance. My favorite tree is stark and frigid, naked in the winter cold, but deep below the earth she is preserving. We dream of spring together and we are making plans. I admire her practical use of time, but she has so much more of it. I wish her luck.

I watch the park from this vantage point and think we are all lucky to be alive. The cars go by. The day draws to a close and it's too cold to go out, so it sit here and contemplate the park instead.
Beats re-runs of Seinfeld, anyway.

New York city: an introduction

The people on the streets in New York City are forever new and they are from everywhere. They ask you for directions in many languages, assuming you might know, and you give them what you have, gladly, and wish them luck. So many "I (heart) NY" T-shirts. This city sells itself.

I wandered around in a daze that fit snugly with my sleep deprived mind and my sense of what's holy. I was lying on the ground beneath a canopy of trees, watching the light break through. and I took a picture because there aren't enough words to describe it.
Central Park in late August, the lush green season.

We spent very little on the trip, save for the ticket out & back, the bus & train fare and the street vendor food. Took the free ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty and I must say she's quite a bit smaller than this idea I have in my head. But I guess all the monuments are like that. All hype and mostly hollow. I was disappointed.

But the rest of the city was alive and breathing!  Suffling, exchanging, repeating. Spitting on the pavement. We found a water fountain and stayed a while to watch the children play (and the mothers watch) and all in the big circle like that around the water- I felt a part of something.

In every subway car, a million stories a day. As an afterthought I began to worry about the cleanliness of this place, because I had not closed my eyes since we arrived (not even to blink it felt like). I was missing precious ticks of time, straining to take it all in-as much as I can get from those hours- that I would pour over later and process for days, months, years I imagine. I have had my first taste of New York city and now I can close my eyes and remember.
All the better to dream of return.