“So Don’t Flip”*

When it comes to righteous indignation
She makes Arundhati Roy seem timid

At a public reading of The Book of Mev
I made sure she read last reading aloud the last chapter

To mark the occasion of her medical school graduation
I gave her the original of Dear Layla Welcome to Palestine

If I see her once a year for a few hours
I consider it a very good year

For the last year she’s been working
One hundred-hour weeks

The Stoics advised long ago
Know what you can and can’t control

I can buy three sheets of Harvey Milk stamps
Send her reminders of her sri and satyagraha

 

*Jack Kerouac, to Allen Ginsberg

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