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Ben Franklin Nods at the Poets in San Francisco |
Our poets’ cries for peace had been smothered
in the huge hurricane for war that swept across our country.
Still after the U.S. tanks glided into Baghdad in April and
the President declared victory standing on an aircraft carrier,
we six poets gathered on the grass in Washington Park next
to the statue of Ben Franklin in North Beach, attempted
to light our peace candles, saw the wind blow them all out;
still we relit the candles as we spoke, Quaker-style,
how still we stood against the war; I swear I saw on his statue
Ben Franklin that old protestor from Quaker Philadelphia nod
approval as all six of us busily began to relight
all our candles again until all six blazed forth.
copyright 2013
Julia
Stein |
