Walking Down Park

walking down park   

amsterdam 

or columbus do you ever stop 

to think what it looked like 

before it was an avenue 

did you ever stop to think 

what you walked   

before you rode   

subways to the stock   

exchange (we can’t be on 

the stock exchange   

we are the stock   

exchanged)

did you ever maybe wonder 

what grass was like before   

they rolled it 

into a ball and called   

it central park 

where syphilitic dogs 

and their two-legged tubercular 

masters fertilize 

the corners and side-walks 

ever want to know what would happen 

if your life could be fertilized 

by a love thought   

from a loved one 

who loves you

ever look south 

on a clear day and not see 

time’s squares but see 

tall Birch trees with sycamores   

touching hands 

and see gazelles running playfully   

after the lions 

ever hear the antelope bark 

from the third floor apartment

ever, did you ever, sit down 

and wonder about what freedom’s freedom 

would bring 

it’s so easy to be free

you start by loving yourself  

then those who look like you  

all else will come

naturally

ever wonder why 

so much asphalt was laid 

in so little space 

probably so we would forget   

the Iroquois, Algonquin 

and Mohicans who could caress   

the earth

ever think what Harlem would be 

like if our herbs and roots and elephant ears   

grew sending 

a cacophony of sound to us 

the parrot parroting black is beautiful black is beautiful   

owls sending out whooooo’s making love...   

and me and you just sitting in the sun trying 

to find a way to get a banana tree from one of the monkeys   

koala bears in the trees laughing at our listlessness 

ever think its possible 

for us to be 

happy