Found Poem: Echoes from Zuccotti Park
– after “Revolution Number 99,” Vanity Fair, February, 2012
it started in Egypt / a bunch of young people using social media / inspired us
and the Indignados in Madrid’s Puerto del Sol / quickly spread throughout Spain
don’t be so sure this can’t happen here / “Are you ready for a Tahrir moment?”
we just thought it would take a little longer / this thing started having a life of its own
the poster / a ballerina on top of this dynamic bull / we were going to take the bull / but
the bull was already occupied / by the police / there was an insane number of cops
horse cops / scooter cops / platoons of foot soldiers looking for something to do
we didn’t know we were going to end up in Zuccotti Park / you had to jockey for space, find
your spot, lay down your cardboard and your sleeping bag / there was this incredible energy
it rained like hell / the mood shifted/ from fear to a lot of hope / I’ve never felt more right
she was old enough to receive a senior-citizen discount / she wore a Guy Fawkes mask
17th century insurrectionist / the V for Vendetta mask was cheap and available / in every city
of the world / it was cool to be a lefty again / “Go cause trouble” / you could see
people being arrested and thrown into buses / young people realize their future
was mortgaged / “hacktivists” had brought down the websites of Visa and MasterCard
a cop came and slammed us down on the ground / it took a few seconds to feel tear gas
hurts to open your eyes / you can’t really breathe / this horrible burning all over your face
“Who are the men who really run this land?” / there are these long waves of American history
and we’re due for one / “And why do they run it with such a thoughtless hand?”
by October 15, Day 29 of the occupation, rallies had spread / Tokyo, Chicago, London, Manila
I’d seen it everywhere / wake people up / the park is symbolic now
the protest is bigger than that / amazing that it worked / like the Arab spring
people felt like they had a voice again because we had that space / are you ready
note: Italicized lines are from David Crosby’s 1971 song, “What Are Their Names?”
Dissonant
Insolent beauty
next to these bruised swollen feet
a wild daffodil
~ ~ ~
Bound together
madmen, mothers, monks
whose mantra to choose
~ ~ ~
A tempest sky
stirred up by too much human
the blue still of fear
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Amy Uyematsu is a Los Angeles-based poet and former teacher (mathematics, creative writing, Asian American Studies). She is Sansei (3rd-generation Japanese American). Her published works include 30 Miles from J-Town (1992), Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain (1997), and Stone Bow Prayer (2005). Her poetry has also been featured in various anthologies, including The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles (2003, eds. by Scott Timberg and Dana Gioia) and Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics from California (2008, eds. Christopher Buckley and Gary Young). You can read more of Uyematsu’s poetry online at the Poetry Foundation website.
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