7 Social Justice Poems

By Gary Beck

Narration by Gary Beck

Illegal Entry

America,
Land of…
Home of…
was once wide open
to immigration,
if you could afford
ship passage.

Some folk
were desperate to escape
oppressive conditions
and indentured themselves,
became slaves for years.

When freedom came
they had a chance
for a new life,
a piece of land
to call their own,
a prosperous trade
that allowed a family
comforts unheard of
in the old country.

But the population grew
and settlements spread,
cities flourished.
After the great land grab
from weaker Mexico
we began to run out of room
for newcomers,
except in the cities,
whose endless appetite
for cheap labor
was never sated.

Then big business ruled
and the children of small farmers
tired of the demands
to work the land
fled to the cities.

As the nation became crowded
regulations constricted
easy immigration.
No matter how much
the middle class complained
about the decline
of America,
opportunity
was still better
than in Mexico.

So millions swarmed across
a porous border
risking death en route
for a safer life,
a job, a livelihood.

The fear of coyotes
by the illegals
was nothing
compared to the dread at home
of the drug cartels,
prospering
by pouring their filth
across the border
into the arms and snouts
of the weak, foolish, stupid
who sustain crime and violence,
consuming the products of evil.

A confused land accepts
the illegal flow of drugs
destroying the fabric of the nation,
yet arrests
the illegal flow of immigrants
eager for honest work.

 

Warning Signs

The media keep telling us
the economy
is doing better,
yet the millions
who lost jobs, homes
in the great recession
are not doing better,
abandoned, then ignored
by those who should help
they suffer silently,
voiceless in a troubled land
that no longer understands
unfavorable omens.

 

Give Until…

Once again
in a fat, dumbing down land,
Christmas is coming.
Greedy shoppers,
urgent to acquire
the latest smart phones,
rush to the stores
babbling tech talk,
pouring out wealth
for material things,
never foreseeing
the coming cyber storm
will eradicate
electronic devices.

 

 

Rigors 

Winter is coming early
this year.
The already shivering homeless
are unprepared
for harsh winds
freezing rains.
Heated gratings
on the sidewalks
that provide warmth
are too exposed
as temperatures drop.
There is a desperate search
for indoor refuge,
anything preferable
to a dangerous shelter.

 

Class Action

Thoughts of home
rarely trouble the privileged
who sleep well at night,
secure
their premises are guarded,
leaving them free
to consider
how to get more
from a decaying nation.

 

Disruptions

Angry individuals,
the mentally disturbed,
self-proclaimed anarchists,
infiltrate
righteous protests,
commit violence,
disrupt honest efforts
to compel reform,
allow the public
to casually dismiss
purposeful action.