FOR AMIRI

(Todays my birthday)
Todays my birthday
I went to North Beach
I found some stories
I found yours too.
Not too back in the day
While stepping out in Newark
I heard you recount
The blues and the people
And I talked to you.
Then the seasons turned, turned, turned
January nine2011 passed
Januarynine2014 passed
And the beat slowed down.
Todays my birthday
and out west in the Bay
I was searching for something I couldnt say
So I wandered and strayed
in an old hippie district
to a beat bookstore.
Where the beat lives on
Where I found you
Alive full of musings and thoughts
You sent out an SOS with big wings
Flying from the Village to the post-racial beat
Your poetry sings, your words still ring
And I read you and heard you
and felt
Your spirit speak.
Todays my birthday
I went to North Beach
And in Washington Park way out West
I found you and listened
To the beat.