• Breaking News

    The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.

    Monday, January 2, 2017

    CHICAGO, OUR KIND OF TOWN

    by George Salamon




    Two girls, 13 and 14, were shot on the South Side as a violent Christmas weekend came to a close during one of the most violent years in Chicago in decades. A total of 61 people were shot in the city during the holiday weekend, according to data kept by the Tribune.. Seven were killed on Christmas Day alone.   "A Violent Christmas in a Violent Year for Chicago: 11 killed, 50 wounded," Chicago Tribune, December 27, 2016


    Chicago, once celebrated by the poet
    As the Hog Butcher for America,
    Proudly singing to be alive,
    You have become
    The People Butcher of America,
    Killing the brawling laughter of youth.
    Why has America abandoned the fight
    To keep old Chicago's spirit alive?

    That spirit and everything else can go to hell
    As long as Wall Street is doing well.
    People? Who cares if they survive
    As long as corporations thrive.
    America, when you wake in the middle of the night
    And an inner voice calls your name,
    Have you no sense of shame?

    George Salamon lives and writes in St. Louis, MO, which boasts of its own All-American murder rate.

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