This is the Year (2017)

after Martín Espada, and all visionaries

This is in fact the year that squatters evict landlords,

as we occupy all streets,

ending the silence, singing in harmony,

shutting down malls and boards of trade,

This is the year of reckless democracy:

Freedom Squares and tent cities

outside their torture sites and banks,

homeless sleeping on the steps of city hall,

ciphers and bagpipes echoing among the throngs,

millions of lights going out all at once

and guerrilla radio blasting


like Sandburg's mob at last awakening

praise you people, water of life protectors,

bless you truth-speakers, bless all your tents,

come drummers, come sousaphones, 


come hordes of screamers,


praise this Music of your loud rage


that is your hungry Love

This is the year the white house is decked out with graffiti,

televisions are used as box drums and churches as house clubs

for the after-parties of the revolution

This is the year the bubble bursts for Koch and Goldman-Sachs

and billionaires wash the dishes of their servants

This is the year that prisons are filled not with boys who sold pot,

but warlords who ordered the bombs to be dropped

            and stole the wealth of countries for Coca Cola & Walmart

            and raped the earth and its waters for Exxon Mobil & BP

This is the year a law is passed


prohibiting police officers from gathering


in groups larger than two


enforced by mobs of brown-skinned teenagers

armed with tanks and poetry

This is the year the ghosts of the murdered haunt the halls of power

till the suits and blue uniforms flee to the streets

This is the year Dred Scott resurrects
from the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis
to appeal his case




This is the year Monsanto goes bankrupt

in lawsuits lost to farmers in India

This is the year factory workers, bus drivers,
nurses, waitresses and busboys

run the factories, buses,

hospitals and restaurants

This is the year kids go to school


and teachers ask “What do you want to learn?”


and whatever they say


whether it's how to build a bike or how to make a pizza

how to play the drums or how to write a poem,

how to save the earth or the history of their people,

Chinese, farming, or what stars are made of


the teachers have to learn it with them

Éste es el año que la educación de “English-Only” está prohibido

y el bilingüismo es un requisito de la ciudadanía

This is the year bicycles swarm the streets

with car lanes squeezed to the margins

This is the year marijuana is legal, cheap and ubiquitous,

and fast food is banned as dangerous and addictive!

This is the year the whole justice system is indicted.

This is the year the presidents of Mount Rushmore


morph into the faces of Crazy Horse,


Sitting Bull, Black Elk, and Fools Crow,

This is the year banners unravel,

barbed-wire fences crumble,

guards set capitves free

and prisons topple

and the last are first

and the first are last

and we give what we can

& take what we need

This is the year food and water are free

and gas is too expensive for everyone


in fact, this is the year money is worthless

and land is priceless


this is the year we remember


that we cannot buy or sell the earth

because   we  

are  

        Her.

If Occupy began


as a vision

of people

            having the debts that kept us slaves cleared,

then This is the year


If #BlackLivesMatter began

as a vision

of people

            walking the streets without fear,

            then This is the year

If every protest begins

as a vision

of people

empowered in body & spirit

Then this is the year it is so

if eyes are eyes...

so may every silent mouth,

dry as thirsty dirt,


open

with the music

of Justice.