For East Harlem Summer '67
FOR EAST HARLEM SUMMER '67
to wreck the store you buy your wears in
to feel & see the glass bouncing off the ground
to see & feel those things
later defining points
bad & points good this
shit & that idea
the idea of familiar streets friends of yours
ripped someone out of his cage someone some punks
the papers said some punks some friends of mine
with scars from 1959 with holes in the veins
from 1963 with sons & daughters with mothers
save in the projects some old men lifting their
arms for the first time in years grand pops i
say i saw grand pops you punks
trying to burn down gas stations why you
should be shame
of yourself
trying to overturn innocent parked cars
why you should
hide your face
smashing bottles against the precinct walls
why you would
jail yourself
throwing gasoline bombs
why you should pray for now on
knocking the ground off its legs like that
breaking the A&P & taking milk & oven golden
sliced bread Hunts Tomato Sauce Coca Cola
bottles you late threw at your friendly police
you were drunk the papers said drunk teen-agers
who had no jobs winos who ran up a block one
punk had a bow & arrow two punks with rifles
sitting by garbage cans ready to be aimed & fired
at the friendly police a girl punk going in
front of the cops & yelling telling them to
kiss her ass you dumb racist gringo you
worst then devils you think you bad with those
big guns the girl punk with a sore throat was
carried away by friends the night exploding.
the papers said you were drunk
BUT WE KNOW WE WERE HIGH.
August 5, 1967
Victor Hernandez Cruz
Article
Subjects
Freeing John Sinclair
Old News
Ann Arbor Sun