Anti Status Quo
Back before the mural on the neighboring post office was painted over, I got to know Laure Reichek at Toby’s Coffee Bar in Point Reyes Station. She lives in Hicks Valley near the McEvoy olive ranch, and I first met her at seasonal parties there.
This is the cover of her last book, which came out two years ago.
As noted in a posting here at that time, Laure was born in Paris in 1930 and in 1951 moved to the US with her husband. He was an American veteran she met after the war when both were studying in Paris.
Laure at 19 in Paris.
Laure’s latest book of poetry in part reflects the trauma of having seen World War II and fascism closehand as a child. Anti Status Quo is a collection of mostly grim ironies.
A week ago, she and I reconnected at Toby’s where she presented me with the book. Here are a couple of biting poems from it:
Of Thee I Weep
Can a man, woman, or child
walk anywhere on this planet?
Our planet?
It depends
whether he/she has
the money.
Money
to buy required papers
to cross artificial borders
of nation-states.
With money
you are welcome
to go anywhere.
Without money
you are allowed
when needed.
Without money
the beacon of light
will lead you to prisons
and the doors
will be locked.
While the poor
walk over mountains, deserts,
drown in rivers,
the rich will fly
in comfort through the air.
Oh, Liberty
of thee I weep.
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If They’re Poor
It’s their fault
for not choosing their parents well.
Instead of their labor to sell
they should have chosen oil wells
or football teams—
very profitable and clean.
My friends own pipelines
and the oil companies,
but I control the armies,
the press, the judiciary.
I’m the emperor of the
twenty-first century,
your thought content and context
your past present and future,
your freedom is the one I own.
I’m rich because I made the right choice.
If they’re poor, that’s their problem—
not mine.
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Laure in Paris, 2019
This collection of her poems and her book Autrefois to Today are available at <reichek.org/Laure> (upper case L).