from NOTEBOOK

Thursday, May 15th, 1969-Berkeley

At 6 a.m. the ominous zooming, war-sound, of helicopter breaks into our sleep.

To the Park:
ringed with police.
Bulldozers have moved in.
Barely awake, the people-
those who had made for each other
a green place-
begin to gather at the corners.

Their tears fall on sidewalk cement.
The fence goes up, twice a man’s height.
Everyone knows (yet no one yet
believes it) what all shall know
this day, and the days that follow:
now, the clubs, the gas,
bayonets, bullets. The War
comes home to us...

-Denise Levertov

Plate from Berkeley Poetry Walk

More details can be found here Click for the item in The ultimate street signs site