All That Has Been Stolen

I think of all the mathematicians, the scientists

sewing cheap, poor quality clothing

 

I think of all the poets, the artists

assembling expensive, short-lived electronics

 

I think of all the teachers, the professors

pulling rickshaws along the stray gravel

 

I think of all the engineers, the architects

making the same hotel beds, scrubbing the same hotel floors

 

I think of all the judges, the attorneys

slowly falling apart in the silver mines

 

I think of all the journalists, the truth tellers

picking fruit from dawn to dusk

 

I think of all the builders, the crafters

sweating away their dreams in the laundries

 

I think of all the nurses, the doctors

rummaging daily through the garbage dumps

 

I think of all the thinkers, the visionaries

their bodies rented out to tourists

 

Are these lotteries of birth and border any semblance of justice?

Is this model of this machine the best offer we have to those who are not us?

Can you honestly say this system is worth fighting for

rather than fighting past?

 

I think of all the humans

who can look at all that has been stolen from our human story

 and answer yes.