Jose Padua: Because Even in the Darkest of Days Revolution Is a Movement Towards the Light

On the same day in August 1967
when American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell
was killed, my younger
brother was born:
one bad guy down, one good guy up and running.
Four days later a girl was born
who would grow up smart and beautiful
like a flower by Georgia O’Keeffe
and who would marry me
and help me shine through sleepless nights
and wakeless mornings in the raising of our children
upon the gleaming landscape.
August 1967 was also the month
when Sam & Dave released their hit “Soul Man,”
a record that seemed to spin so steadily on the turntable
at 45 revolutions per minute
I swore it illuminated my concept
of what it meant to be an object in motion.
And somewhere in the universe
there is a city where dusty roads
and paved avenues intersect
like these days from 1967,
changing the world,
changing what’s in the air
from sound to song,
always moving toward clear light.

—

Copyright 2016 Jose Padua

Photograph of downtown Philadelphia by Jose Padua