Mark Blackford - Peanut Butter Sandwiches

In Memory of Woodstock, 1969

It must have been so noisy that weekend

inside Kaplan's Deli, all of the hustle & bustle

of knives beating bread loaves

into peanut butter submission.

Breakfast in bed for 400,000 reduced to bagged lunches

battling their way through miles of traffic

& bodies in varying stages of undress,

all running toward the reverb

fast as they could be carried.

From a lonely patch of dirt

that periodically sends flights to Toronto

they were carried by copter

into chaos & passed out by Pranksters

alongside cups of granola. This cargo,

more precious than Richie Havens, kept

the Long-Hairs contented and dancing

well through those long, muddy nights.

But this story is about more than just sandwiches.

This is a story about a people who came

and went on their own accord; This is a story

about the man who disagreed with them

yet respected them enough to give up

being a dairy farmer for just one weekend;

This is a story about communities

coming together to care for their guests

whether welcome or not; This is a story

about America; about a search for silence;

about a gesture toward peace; & how it was found

in gaps between raindrops; breaths between

words; the small space between two hands

pressed together, passing along

bagged lunches and granola cups; the sunflowers

between bullet casings; the break between

stanzas; the wait between notes

among so much noise and calamity on a farm

in the middle of nowhere, New York

When Hendrix took to the stage

& played “The Star-Spangled Banner”

the whole world fell silent; felt

the weight in the space between

each strum of his guitar & clung to it,

hoping something better is yet to come.

---

Mark was born and raised in Sullivan County, NY, only 20 minutes from the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. He received a B.A. in English from Valdosta State University (GA, 2010). He presently resides in Woodridge, NY with his wife and children, and is currently the Poet Laureate of Sullivan County, NY.