Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Poem: Shades


Shades

Calm sets in after the wintry storm’s wrath
A blanketing whiteness that impedes every path
In the bristling cold air moves a singular frame
While I sit in the warmth he will work all the same

Stories reported of the common event
A xenophobe’s ring of repeated lament
‘Round Freehold stoppings there’s a gathering mass
The Mexican workers standing anxious alas

Whether legal or less so is often unclear
The landscape and work crews they would to hope to adhere
Though people scream wildly of jobs they might steal
‘Nary a white man ‘mongst the group would reveal

These poor, decent people only seek daily bread
The venom from racists would be better unsaid
My immersion in thoughts of past dust bowls and decay
Leave me reflective of this man on this day

Call the man to me; crooked teeth, short but stout
Just a hard working spirit weathered inside and out
Hand him a ten-spot as the least I can do
He thanks me and smiles then he thanks me anew

Put in perspective of a national fight
Where some see the brown less deserving their rights
Remove them, contain them and brand with a stain
But they are us, we are them, we are all just the same

My walkway is shoveled and the man shuffles on
Illegal or legal, what this land’s built upon
We all trace our roots to migrations as such
Whatever the reasons, we’re alike much as much

Copyright SGW 2013

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