May Day Seattle

By Sandra Noel

America once welcomed her immigrants
until we didn’t need them any longer
the Chinese who built railroads
drilled seven mile tunnels
through our purple mountains’ majesty
for  the Great Northern and Union Pacific
then told to go home and put on ships
the ones who weren’t slaughtered on the shore.
Japanese farmers who prospered in this new land
until shoved into concentration camps
the ones forced to come from Africa
as slaves,  then slaves again to southern Jim Crow laws
here so long they fought for their rights
and finally won but
so much and so many were lost in the process.
Others come from Mexico
as long as we need them
to pick our apples and asparagus
or as long as it is politically expedient
then we build a wall
enact some laws that say America welcomes
only those who have their paperwork in order.
Driving while Hispanic is the new driving while black.

“Where is your identification?
What are YOU doin’ in this neighborhood?
Go home! Go to jail! Go to hell!” BANG!”

May Day in Seattle
and workers fill the streets
signs and voices remind us
we have this right to protest peacefully.
Anarchists with no real cause
do damage in their cute little ways
masked white boys and girls
in good shoes, well fed
(Remember the weathermen?)
Peter Pans and Wendys armed
with rocks and spray cans
“Hey man, it’s the corporations!”
SMASH!
Hey man, it’s also you and me and all of us
together talking, singing, marching VOTING

Ghandi and Martin and Jesus
and Buddha and Aung San Suu Kyi

May Day in Seattle
(I watched it from my couch.)

Previously published in Protestpoems