Ellis Island Reversal by Jennifer Lagier

Lady Liberty has been laid off,
torch extinguished,
welcome plaque censored,
toll booth installed.

Immigration has been demonized,
myth of terrorists overrunning borders
propagated by white supremacists,
spread by Faux News.

We’ve forgotten our foreign grandparents,
herded through cattle chutes, taken ashore.
Their stooped backs, straining shoulders
pushed the nation’s economy, democracy’s cogs.

Now hate-inflamed extremists
drape themselves in Confederate flags,
march through America’s corrupted heartland,
wave flaming torches, blood dripping clubs.

..

Jennifer Lagier has published thirteen books, co-edits the Homestead Review, helps coordinate Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium readings. Newest books: Scene of the Crime (Evening Street Press), Harbingers (Blue Light Press), Camille Abroad (FutureCycle Press). Forthcoming publications: Like a B Movie (Feb. 2018) and Camille Mobilizes (Dec. 2018), (FutureCycle Press, 2018). Website: jlagier.net