–Hat tip to Millicent Accardi
When it is routine
to hold hostage
a domestic flight
to check the papers
of ordinary citizens,
when you have made it
legal to seize the assets of those
who speak out or gather
in groups of more than two
for fear we might contradict you
or plan some protest,
and shut the press down
for printing truth,
because you can’t bear to be wrong
or challenged—
When you make us
make art furtively
as though it were wrong
and dangerous (O it is, yes!)—
When you and your cronies have
stolen our wages
through bad schedules
and punch-clock shenanigans
and right to work for less laws,
stripped us of what little
we make
through exorbitant taxes
that subsidize your businesses,
given the bosses permission
to use our time and our bodies
as they like
without regard for our
humanity or safety,
no matter how many of us
are maimed or killed,
dumped us out
of the skimpy, fraying safety net
without arms, legs, or lungs,
poisoned the air and water
then sold it back to us, bottled,
like the whole country is
a company town,
neglected unto ruin
the bridges we cross
to work each day
and dug up the parks we cherish when we’re not,
disappeared the buses and trains we ride
so we have to all buy your cars
or walk to your jobs,
enslaved us with debt
for an advanced education you require
to work in the goddam mailroom,
made us so poor
we have to wager our lives
in your wars
to even begin to get ahead,
then send our children
to countries we’ve no business being in
and abandon them when they come home
without limbs or minds or sleep,
pawn off the excess equipment
to police and give them the power
they should never have
to decide who lives
and who dies for expressing themselves
or just walking down the street,
enforcing harsh laws that send more of us
(mostly Black and brown)
than in any other nation
to jails where we still work like slaves—
When you have reduced us
from a free(ish) nation
of free(ish) people
pursuing happiness
to utterly oppressed masses,
when you are huddled in your compounds
with your paid servants
and paid security,
unsure of their loyalty,
behind razor wire and laser beams,
as much prisoners
as those in your jails—
This ends two ways:
in misery for all of us
or death for you and rebirth for us.
Stop now, while you still can.
We are already
sharpening our tools.
–February 25, 2017, Harlem, New York
