At sunset

The psychedelic peacocks

hippies slash yippies

came out in force

chanting and singing:

the brightly hued

day-glo faction

Ed Sanders, Abbie Hoffman,

Allens Ginsberg and Cohen,

The SCLC, SDS, William Sloane Coffin

Norman Mailer, Kenneth Anger

The Fugs, Tariq Ali

The armies of the night

mourning as the wind;

no cleansing water but

To wash away the sin

the image of the flower

down the barrel of a gun

 *

The pentagon

did not levitate

Or turn bright orange

But I saw it vibrate;

It did not lift

from the ground

but was raised

into consciousness –

the conscience of a nation

an exorcism and levitation

demonstration

the year we turned

against the war

It was twenty years ago today

times two plus ten

remember when?

the summer of love

nineteen sixty-seven