Poetry: Requiem for the American Worker

 

Requiem for the American Worker

I hear America crying

across the flatlands, hill and dale.

Embittered tears of weary souls

the beaten down, the proud.

 

American workers holding on

with a cry in their voice.

Fighting hard to not be counted

among the growing poor.

 

The waitress at night with a babe upon her breast,

The coal miner tired of his long rest.

The automobile worker doing her best,

The bakery is closing, the baker is next.

 

The bus driver without a human load,

The young black man never given a chance.

The hospital worker called off, worries how to pay the rent.

Telephone workers marching, out in the cold.

 

Voices, hands, and hearts

traded for those across the seas.

The small, American farmer

still fighting hard to believe.

 

I hear America crying,

as those “who have”,

with no remorse, no guilt,

build empires upon the workers backs.

Americans trying, trying, and trying.

I hear America crying.

 

 

(Printed with one time American rights, Labor News, Indianapolis, In. Feb 2006.

This Author: tch maintains rights).

Reprinted @ Terre’s Blog – Women of All Seasons c. 2018.