UC Santa Cruz Poem

*UC Santa Cruz*

If you found a forest fire in the City on a Hill,
Would you then come out? Or try to put it out?
If I told you there’s Banana Slugs opposed to decompose,
Would you fade with no resistance? Or try to slug it out?
It’s pouring and that’s—just fine.
We’re high, it’s getting cloudy, and we’re happy on Tree 9,
Because the more it rains—the more grass grows,
And at First Rain, we wear no clothes,
And it’s all just organic as farm rows.
Here’s to another great 4/20,
And there won’t be another 20,
So pass that joint before this passes by.
Not unlike 19 and 18,
And all the years chopped down in between,
Someday we’ll see all this and have to say goodbye…
And in this haunted forest, with Slugs who swore they’d never leave:
I say let’s keep resisting:
In this Perfect Place to Die.

When their power is on, they try to shut us down.
But Slugs don’t go down swinging:
We don’t go down at all.
The power is on. So they can’t shut us down.
And when the system tries:
We stay lit like Fireflies.

We’re floating in the Meadow,
Taking bridges where we all go
Through ports of beauty in Redwoods,
That’s only fully understood:

From up here…

From up here…

From up here…

And up here,
Food tastes so much better,
The beauty now looks even better,
Come share this view of
Cruz Uprising.
We will choose to take the high way
To cruise the beauty found here each day
And from these trees she sure looks like
Monterrey Bay.
And though they always cut our forts down,
Our fortitude will always rebound,
And when they tell us we can’t pass,
We always fail to leave no record,
Tell us again we can’t come through,
Tell us again what we can’t do,
We’re at Porter more than ever before:

Now who’s the Broken Record?

When their power is on, they try to shut us down.
But Slugs don’t go down swinging:
We don’t go down at all.
The power is on. So they can’t shut us down.
And when the system tries:
We stay lit like Fireflies.

We’re floating in the Meadow,
Taking bridges where we all go
Through ports of beauty in Redwoods,
That’s only fully understood:

From up here…

From up here…

From up here…

It’s all clear:

The All Clear

From Alma Mater Vol. 3: The West
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
©2016. Original Clyde Aidoo. All rights reserved