Mic Check

Mic Check

First they came for Troy Davis

and I didn't speak up because 

I wasn't Troy Davis,

then they came

for the homeless

I didn't speak up

I wasn't homeless

came for the unemployed

I wasn't unemployed

I kept my mouth shut

came for students 

besieged with debt

no job prospects

I was too smart

too hard-working

to be

one of them

either

shut

doors

to hospitals

I had another

close by

a lovely

insurance policy

threw children

off food programs


jailed mothers




too bad




I watched quietly


as sheriffs


banks


banged


boards

dragged off 

campers

trashing their tents

I never

liked camping

no one was doing 

anything

to my belongings

took people

out of trees

(and cut the trees down) --

but I never 

hung out in trees

never climbed one 

as a kid

and I like

unobstructed

views of landscape

to begin with,

took away

union activists

I didn't speak

I didn't belong 

to a union,

then they came 

for the veterans

and I didn't speak up 

because I had never 

fought in a war .. 

they came for me

too 

eventually ..

I was all 

by myself 

by then

so there was 

no one left

to speak out

for me -

not even a tree

to grace

memory

- o.s.r.

remembering 

Martin Niemöller 

(1892-1984)


and 


Martina Davis-Correia


(1967-2011)