by Donna Katzin
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| Cartoon by Nick Anderson |
In his big-boss suit, the President
tours the Ford factory, as if he owns the place,
until a heckler calls him a predator
without even slowing down the line
that devours his labor until the bell rings
to keep the country’s machinery running.
The boss’s fingers have never known a callous,
labored long hours to meet production quotas
until they ached and his back complained.
They flick disdain and disrespect to workers
like cigarette butts or young women used up
until the men on top tire of them,
spit them out, like last night’s nicotine—traumas and all.
But the gesture masquerading as power
sends a message to the shop floor crew—
the truth-teller has gotten under
boss-man’s sagging skin,
and this group knows how to organize…
They can do it again.
A former union organizer, Donna Katzin has worked for more than four decades with South Africa in its struggle to defeat apartheid and advance the new nation's democratic development. She also continues through Tipitapa Partners to work with vulnerable Nicaraguan communities struggling to feed their children. She is the author of With These Hands, a book of poetry and photos of South Africans struggling to give birth to a new nation, and a published poet honored to have been included in The New Verse News.
