back from DC

I'm back from my trip to DC. It was really wonderful to be able to go back to my old stomping grounds and get to see a bunch of friends. This trip for me was about people and not so much about doing touristy things. I did have one day (Monday) where I was alone for nearly the whole day because everyone was at work. It was actually quite a wonderful day...I slept in (for DC time, was still up before 7am on Colorado time), walked from my friends' place in Alexandria, VA to the bus to the metro and took metro to GW (where I did undergrad). I spent the morning wandering around GW, got some snacks from my old shopping places: the safeway and CVS in the basement of the watergate building, just a few blocks from my old dorms.

I then wandered down past the White House to the Mall and did the "monument tour" that I used to do with my friends in the wee hours of night when there were no tourists, and the city was ours. And I spent a nice while relaxing and thinking and writing and being inspired at the FDR memorial, a place where I would go to study and to think during my last year of undergrad (it didn't exist before then).

Since I was really inspired to write, here is a spontaneous poem of sorts that was created during the bus and metro trip into the city:

man cutting grass with yellow handled scissors
woman speaking spanish to me because I am a woman
or because I have an olive complexion
but the lanky white teen boys speak better spanish than me.
a girl holds a leash with her two twin sisters strapped in
who is walking who?
my cell rings its electronica beat as it flashes the caller "Spittin G"
And the humidity makes my skin feel so soft
I notice my reflection in the glass as I stare out at the kudzu covered trees
the airport still says "National" no matter what the politicians want to call it
and I remember coming to meet a tall blond boy and his mother here many years ago
when this city was my city
and it was my home

---
The FDR memorial has a lot of FDR quotes engraved in the granite walls. I wrote down three quotes that spoke to me:

"Men and Nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of the balance also the lives of men."

"In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice...the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man."

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our own civilization."