System: Activism
Her poetry
Gave medicine
To the broken
In heart & mind,
Revolutionaries
Found within
Their ranks sometimes.
Her plays
Gave us
Reason to laugh
At the misery
Associated with poverty
In our lives brought to heel
In one act or two.
A different play
For each
PeopleSkool
Kept things interesting
For the privileged
And underprivileged students.
Always where
The excitement is—
Teach-ins,
Movement strategy
Meetings, radio shows,
Street protests,
Film and
Arts festivals,
Confrontations
With politicians—
Yet calm, humble,
Eloquent through it all.
Berkeley-born dreadlocked
Daughter of Caroline
On the ground reporter
Digital resistor
Afro-Punk
Not on the forefront
Melted into the scene
With Poor Magazine
Welfare Queen
Gentle heroine
Ecstascene
Disseminated that
Revolutionary love
For other
Single mothers,
Revolutionary love
For sex workers
Surviving off their
Physical art,
Revolutionary love
For the Punk Rock scene,
Her secondary
Bay Area family,
Revolutionary love
For the indigenous
Whose land this
Settler lie stands upon,
Revolutionary love
Patience, in actuality,
For the author of these words,
A man whom extreme
Few respect and none understand,
Revolutionary love
For the poor
In all guises, levels of hardship,
Revolutionary love
For her biological son,
For her Mexican
Lover and his own son,
For little
Xolo and Chihuahua
Dogs, the softest spots in
Her heart were for them,
Revolutionary love
For most she encountered
Order was
Brought to
Disorder when
Her calm
And positivity entered
A room together.
W: 9.13.18
[ For Laure McElroy—1972-2018. ]
