Revolution
The revolution was around the corner
every weekend a different demonstration
chanting down Fifth Avenue along Central Park
past police barricades.
Cops on horses ready to charge.
In Union Square, we collected signatures to end the war
for equal housing, open admissions
to free all political prisoners end apartheid
afternoons on the phone hoping for endorsements
from Noam Chomsky James Baldwin
Bella Abzug Shirley Chisholm
raising money for a quarter-page ad
in the Sunday New York Times.
Luis Talamantez was released on parole.
Aretha offered to pay Angela's bail.
We built alliances
deferred ideological disagreements
until a steering committee issued a new statement
mimeograph machines spinning wet blankets of black ink
listened to Pete Seeger and the Weavers
Motown Sly and the Family Stone.
We talked about moral integrity and commitment
studied Franz Fanon Herbert Marcuse
read volumes by Marx and Engels I could never finish
W.E.B. DuBois
The People's History by Howard Zinn.
Walter Lowenfels said the revolution is to be human.
Gil-Scott Heron said the revolution wouldn't be televised.
Near the Museum of Natural History
Muriel Rukeyser crumpled a sheet of paper
and dropped it on the floor.
She asked us to write
what had just happened.
Lenore Weiss is a poet and novelist. Her latest book of poems is Video Game Pointers, which balances nostalgia, activism and a love of nature. She has also recently published Pulp into Paper, an eco-noir novel where "the stink is the smell of money." She lives in Northern California.