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