You Were A Friend of Mine |
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Who took us into a lower east side squat Who took us into Steal This Radio where Bernadette played whale songs Who made us pots of hot apple juice with ginger To cure what ailed us You were a friend of mine The children marveled at your glasses Held together by strange wire The glint in your eyes Who took a freight train up north, got off, hitched a ride in a bread truck and got off right in front of where I worked just as I clocked off for the day and you had scored free bread! Who did what most people could never do You were a friend of mine like it was a walk in the park Without fear of the police Without fear of their guns knowing the bulldozers were around the corner Who learned of Zapata Emiliana wanting to champion the poor Wanting to save the trees change the world Questioning the authorities Who always wanted to bring us closer to Utopia Who was a true friend of Utopia Sitting in the mountains of Colorado Speaking your poetic mind Never worried about the questions of experimental poetry Who scored the LSD for poetry Who brought the sunflower seeds To our backyard Your were a friend of mine Brad, how did you know where to go next? The next people That needed your Fire breathing fire of poetic energy Turned into what we All knew was the right thing to do You were a friend of mine Brad you had a lot of chutzpa On October 27th, 2006 - Poet, activist, journalist, Brad Will was killed by undercover government policemen. Brad was shooting video of protests by the people against the corrupt government of Oaxaca Mexico. from The Tea Book The Letter There’s a page missing from My notebook The first draft of a letter never to be sent Let’s meet for tea at The plaza instead and I’ll tell you what it said We Could Watch The Turtles There are people who never think not to drink tea There are people who can tell what color a bird is just by hearing it sing There are people who sit motionless like iguanas staring at the sinking sun Dinner I remember when we used to drink tea with lemon after every dinner I remember liking it with cookies History of Tea Many years ago in Asia They put the forest into a pot After awhile the tea plant Was isolated from the branches The leaves from the twigs …. So Many Teas, So Little Time Tea for me, tea for you We want to drink tea at high noon We want to go to the tea room Green tea, red tea black tea, white tea orange tea and tea that isn’t even tea There’s ice tea, sweet tea, tea with lemon and honey, tea with milk, tea with one lump, tea with two lumps tea with three lumps, ok that’s enough Texas Tea You don’t have to be a tea drinker to remember the Teapot Dome scandal of 1922 The kind of crime that still exists today When the federal government and private oil companies work together against the public You know, from Wyoming to Texas and beyond Maple Syrup New Years New year’s day Bernadette had raspberry herbal caffeine free tea with her pancakes Outside it snowed The day began to look darker Maple syrup went in the tea and on the pancakes and then we proceeded through a wintry mix Out of Work Poet Dreams I wonder while a write this if a poetry prize winner is drinking tea out of a fancy cup watching pelicans catch fish in the sunset |
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