Yesterday marked the day that Dominicans celebrate as the day their country was freed from Haitian rule and became independent. This poem is in honor of La Trinitaria, because it is important to remember a story of three men, Juan Pablo Duarte, Ramon Matias Mella, and Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, who inspired their country to become free. “We are the change we’ve been waiting for” wasn’t a campaign slogan to win an election, it was wake up call to rescue a country. While the NAACP and other so called leadership organizations opt to play along to get along, the crisis for the working poor and minorities in this country grows worse every day. Where we at?
You Who Sleep Soundly Through Our Bleakest Hour
You who sleep soundly through our bleakest hour,
who hear the meekest cry, and turn away,
who ride the river, blessing it with power
to cancel what we've made day by slow day;
You whom we cannot know nor flee, who hide
behind your countless aliases, who bear
the weapon of your absence like a tide
against our helplessness, and fail to care;
You who stand by while madness picks the lock,
stroke cuts the wires, tumor rigs the mine:
Look how we scour the earth to find--in rock,
in fire, in word--your signature, some sign
of you in thought that quarrels with your will,
and as it quarrels, hungers for you still.
-Rhina Espaillat
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