The Workers Rose On May Day, Or, Postscript to Karl Marx - Audre Lorde

[highlyeccentric]

Down Wall Street
the students marched for peace
Above, construction workers looking on remembered
how it was for them in the old days
before their closed shop white security
and daddy pays the bill
so they climbed down the girders
and taught their sons a lesson
called Marx, is a victim of the generation gap
called Marx, I grew up the hard way so will you
called the limits of a sentimental vision.

When the passion-play was over
and the dust had cleared on Wall Street
500 Union workers together with police
had mopped up Foley Square
with 2000 of their striking sons
who broke and ran
before their fathers chains.

Look here Karl Marx
the apocalyptic vision of amerika!
Workers rise and win
and have not lost their chains
but swing them
side by side with the billy-clubs in blue
securing Wall Street
against the striking students.