in new york, 32,000 people gather
to wrestle their lives
their dignity
their homes
from the grip-lock of corporate hands
a crowd of humans a mile in length stretched across the brooklyn bridge
and flooding foley square
with the aid of their friends at jp morgan
and in our kitchen
sometime between home-made cornbread and
lemon-verbena tea lia says
half of the 5,000 books were retrieved
and the people’s library
that has gone mobile
is now rolling across the brooklyn bridge
and in portland
another kind of rain:
and in berkeley
where cops cleared the camp
that tuesday night 5,000 gathered around
students occupy sky
and transform books into tents
and in our living room
while trying to reconcile
where i am in relation to these locations
(displacement)
i tell kaya about the san diego man on hunger strike
until city council takes on the issue of tents in civic plaza
and how it may not be portland’s 8,000 people
holding it down until four in the morning
but it is still just as astounding
because it is fueled
by the same spirit
