BENEATH
By Dee Allen.
___________

Protect your eyes from flying pebbles.
Slip the goggles on.
Protect your palms from blisters.
Slide the gloves on.
The blacktop & grey pavement need removing.
Lift the axes, pickaxes & sledgehammers,
Activate jackhammers
And get to work
Breaking with the undesirable past.
Aching to see
The growing green future
Beneath the asphalt.

Make cracks in the dense surface.
Liberate each yard
Decolonise each acre
Of East Oakland Ohlone ground
From rock-solid
Man-made captivity
The more you swing & dredge
With construction tools.
Inching closer to
The growing green future
Beneath the asphalt.

Dump the broken pieces
Into a wheelbarrow and carry unsightly
Chunks of the past
Away from the uncovered
Site of healing.
The soft brown soil
Needs to mend itself gradually.
Rainwater & wind can aid the process along.
And so can you.
Nursing the ground
Back to proper health
In preparation for
The growing green future
Freed from asphalt.

Dig a fresh hole with a spade.
Lay down some seeds.
Reseal the hole with topsoil.
Just add water
And some fertiliser
And soon, that ground will give abundantly
What she produces for free.
Fruits, vegeatbles & exotic plants
Will rise, thrive & meet sunlight.
Show your little ones that food
Doesn't come from
Shelves of the marketplace.
And anyone can partake
From what collective work ushered in:
The growing green future
Freed from asphalt.

And the grasp of landlords.
______________________


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