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
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
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.
