Driver Plaza

This neighbourhood comes together to

 

Serve the community,

Long-time community,

Form bonds

Among themselves,

Feed the people,

North Oakland people

 

Free home-made

And donated food

On bowls & plates,

Free rides

To the hospital,

Free legal advice

Teaching the poor

About rights they

Never knew they had,

Useful when confronting

Cops, courts and landlords,

Free tips on

Getting the homeless

Housed at last,

Installing a bench

To sit on,

A hard plastic outhouse

For self-relief,

A cob oven

For cook-outs,

Planted collard greens

And fruit trees

For neighbours who

Joined the ancestors.

 

Survival is ensured,

Dignity is restored

Every Tuesday afternoon

At 61st and Adeline

Driver Plaza—–

 

This neighbourhood comes together to

 

Stop gentrification

From stealing

Food, community,

Human rights,

Black homes

And Aunti

From them.

 

Extended family member

Their Aunti Frances

With Berkeley

In her bloodstream,

She who holds

Her ‘hood in

Her affectionate arms,

She who walks

Liberation despite poverty

And ninety-day

Threats on paper.

Her revolutionary

Act of cooking

For the block,

Her perennial

Love Mission,

Black Panther vision

Won’t be evicted

If more neighbours

Stand behind her

And valiantly

Fight keeping her indoors.

The outside world

Has jaws agape

Hungry for bodies

Unhoused by evictions

Born, bred,

Oakland grown.

 

Aunti needs her triplex

Apartment, home of eight years.

Living and resting aren’t

All she needs it for.

Her kitchen especially, besides the plaza,

Is the centerpiece of her life,

Crucial in keeping

Her humanitarian vision

And folks fed and alive

In a city undergoing rapid change

At 61st & Adeline

Driver Plaza—–

 

No family could be

Strong without their auntie’s guidance.

W: Saint Valentine’s Day 2018

[ For “Aunti” Frances Moore. ]