[Newspoetry] from andy

[Sam Patterson]

For the protest


Be careful with symbols!
Even new ones can ruin everything,
can water down your language, your history.
Beware of the meaning of history; it can convince you
that the struggle died in such-and-such a city
at such-and-such a time. What do they mean, “died?”
You know what’s necessary. You’ve been showing up
(far longer than the poet, I’d guess)

to show that a public is possible at all,
the shimmer where the street full of
shimmering motorists
becomes a public too.

Facing each other, and then out, to the wars.


Unity is practical only.

Let’s not allow them to look back at us and say,
“It didn’t live up to its significance.”

Keep appearing. If we need symbols, let
them be the marks of our public presence, and
not our “guiding lights”. Because

we know something of what’s necessary
and
we can’t be the public at every moment.

signs and sunburn and the end of the present.

everyone will eat.



love andy more soon