new poem by brigade member John Curl

AMERICAN OVERTURN

 

Overturn a brand new leaf

leaf through a dog-eared book

book the d.a. for felony graft

graft a plum branch onto a peach root

root out the causes of social strife

strive toward revelatory visions

envision the end of bureaucratic dictators

dictate a hundred songs about love

love the work you live

live for wholeness and light

light the fires of forgiveness

forgive the failings of your parents

parent your children to interconnections

interconnect compassion to your world

world consciousness overturns.

Over turning privatized commons

spurning career politicians

churning ownership patents

burning corporate papers

turning over unjust laws.

Now all things American overturn.

 

Seamstresses unravel socks

carpenters nail their hammers

omelets flip themselves over

houses balance on their roof ridges

tree roots stretch into the air

cumulous clouds billow into back yards

senior execs pull each others’ comb-overs

FBI agents bug each others’ phones

patrol officers club each other over the head

incumbent officeholders change their names

the president’s cabinet put on false mustaches

Chamber of Commerce stuffs a brown paper bag

Secretary of the Interior hides in the closet

head of the SEC slips through the airport in drag

board chairmen arrive in the Cayman Islands

all the payoffs of all the corporate lobbyists

can’t buy a jelly sandwich

citizens declare the two-party system under

arrest for impersonating democracy.

Over turning privatized commons

spurning career politicians

churning ownership patents

burning corporate papers

turning over unjust laws.

Now all things American overturn.

 

 

 

New image-poem by Melba Abela

new poem by brigade member Carol Denney

The Worst Opera


my fifteenth court appearance
was like watching
the worst opera ever produced
the worst libretto
with the worst timing
the most boring costumes
the most terrible singers
no harmony
no instruments
a lot of whispering
the paper rustling was
louder than the actors
the audience was only waiting
for their small part to be over
and then one by one
they would leave


Carol Denney  6/8/2012

"Casserole" by Gary Hicks

casserole

             for laurie

remember that scene in malcolm x
where malcolm and the fruit of islam
descend upon the police station
and particularly that historico-cinematic
moment when malcolm's black- gloved
hand twists rightward and the fruit
does a left-face and marches away
along with all of the masses who came
to the police station?
do you remember that you asked me
if i was crying and i replied that
i had something in my eye?

well, i've always had this problem
of having eye-cinders at political moments
those specs just keep showing up!
the revolutionary peoples constitutional congress
philadelphia labor day weekend 1970
michael cetawayo tabor keynoting in
the indoor gym
the justice department may 1971 when the
d.c.'s black cops in total mutinous disobedience
to their white commanders refusing
to attack a nonviolent demonstration the first legal martin luther king holiday
in san francisco with at least one hundred
and more likely two hundred thousand
marchers coming across the east bay bridge
from san jose on trains reserved by the unions.

it seems that i've had a goodly supply of eye-cinders
to cover my false-shame for disobeying the rule
that men don't cry and now here we are again
another film that of one half million quebecois
students and all of their allies banging pots and
pans and strumming any and all string instruments
and out numbering the total activist pool of occupy
in my country where on mayday in oakland
eye-cinders invaded again to the sight of a mere
seven thousand marchers.

so i'm resigned to having to keep in stock many many
eye-cinders because both rumor and official story
have it that i don't cry.

berkeley ca     6-2-2012

gary hicks