The One About St. Mark's Place

Getting Physical on St. Mark's Place.

There was that night on St. Mark's Place?
      At St. Mark's Church
I stand corrected – At St. Mark's Church
     OCC Q PIE Wall Street
We were going to change the world – again
     Just like our parents thought they would in the 60s
Just like their parents thought they did in the 40s

     But you remember that night?
It was the Poetry Project
     Yeah! The ghosts of Ginsberg and other dead rebels
We all brought food
     And Wine!
It was a potluck
     Thanksgiving with the dispossessed

Reading poems...
     ...many of them bad
Writing poems...
     ...many of them worse
I didn't know what to wear, and you said
     Wear what you would to court

And the music
     That folkie from Minnesota
Who was heading down to New Orleans
     Channeling Woody Guthrie with a guitar strap string
That was a night!
     That was just another night on St. Mark's Place


 — Mark Butkus