Remember Me

Panther burning in the night

spinning words from filaments

& street lights’ last regrets,

it is easier to tie two cities together

with a ribbon of highway

than it is to return

the ribbon to my hair

which fell that night

while running from spooks

that lurked around the corner

engaged in menacing forms

of governance.

Easier to connect

Oakland to Seattle

after the fall of the King & Senator

than it was for fatherless children

to stay warm that winter

& we were only marching

in the proletariat parade

only working overtime

to keep up, to speak our mind

to hold our peace, bring

all ten points of light to illumination

under that accursed streetlamp.

We hoped & dreamed

we were moving on to better things

& few of us stopped for one last look

or even looked back

at the spot where X marked

the moment of our homelessness.

And in that spot where memories

fear to tread, thinly veiled voices

sometimes rise from the cremated ashes

we carry (despite reasonable objection).

They are only asking if you ever bothered

to remember them.

That is all.

Redwood Coast

10 December 2010

for Aaron Dixon