Dashed off a quick poem, below, for those out protesting today on behalf of workers’ and immigrants’ rights, especially for everyone doing great organizing and protest work in/about what’s going on in Arizona.

For more poetry on the topic, Facebook users can see the amazing virtual mobilization going on at Poets Responding to SB 1070.

Images in this post are by Xicana artist Melanie Cervantes.

Into the Dark Future

In the twelfth generation
when we are no longer Indian
or Japanese, not Mexican
or Hmong,
who will police
the borders in our blood?

As the rivers burn
with oil & loss,
as the mountains
erupt
with hollow rage,
what papers shall we carry

except those inscribed
with love?
Will we remember
the names of the dogs
who chased us like furies,
rabid white

mouths foaming
because they have lost
their homes, their meat,
their mother’s love,
and even their gods,
who left them

barking, barking
against the tide?
Look: We are the future.
And isn’t it rich,
dark, sweet, dazzling,
unrelentingly brave?