THE BEGINNINGS OF MAY

(1997)

by Lorraine Caputo

With the beginnings of May

      hopes  & dreams drift

            on vernal  breezes

One hundred eleven years ago

            the 1^st of May

Workers were striking in Chicago

      for the eight-hour workday

The Chicago Mail said

      If trouble should occur

            make an example of

                  Albert Parsons & August Spies

            the 3^rd of May

In front of the McCormick Harvester works

      the police opened fire

Strikers ran for their lives

      many were wounded

      four were dead

            the 4^th of May

A demonstration

Chicago police & military arrived

      In the name of the State of Illinois

            disperse

A bomb exploded

            agent provocateur?

& the agents of repression shot

When the gun smoke cleared

      & the streets streamed with blood

The oppressor’s history recorded

      how many of their agents died

& lost to our memory

            buried beneath their dreams

      we do not know

            how many of us died

Parsons & Spies & six other

      anarchist labor leaders were arrested

Only one was at Haymarket

      speaking when the bomb blew

Their crime: their literature

They were tried, convicted

Four executed       one killed himself

After several years of worldwide protest

      the other three were pardoned

All around the world on May 1^st

      workers remember those martyrs

            of Haymarket Square

They know our history

But here the silence suppresses

      our knowledge

It is not our labor day

It is not a historical site

      just a barren concrete space

            caught between train station & highway

            ensnared in the snarled chaotic web

                  of modern traffic

                  of capitalist life here

Another beginning of May

      twenty-seven years ago

Campuses across our nation

      erupted into pain shared

            with Cambodians & Vietnamese

There people died

      beneath US corporate-government bombs

      because of its greed & ethno-centrism

There our brothers & friends died

      drafted into the slavery of war

& so the students arose

President Nixon & Attorney General Mitchell said

      an example should be made

            to silence those young voices

At Kent State

The ROTC barracks had been firebombed

            but by whom?

After days of Northeast Ohio rains

      no Molotov cocktail could have ignited

            those old wooden buildings

But an agent provocateur succeeded

Governor Rhodes sent the Guard out

& on this May 4^th twenty-seven years ago

      four died at Kent State

            another eight wounded

                  one who would die a few years later

& two killed at Jackson State, Mississippi

All told

      fourteen dead on nine campuses

            within days       nationwide

At the hands of the police

      National Guard militia

At the hands of the agents of repression

Forgotten       beneath layers

      of denial       suppression

Buried away       hidden away

     

Today

      in the soft light of a

            cool late-Spring morning

I read the Wobblie paper

A notice that Judi Bari died

      IWW union organizer

      Earth First! activist

            tirelessly toiling to protect

                  our Mother Earth

                  & the workers

An Arizona car bomb

      lifted her & Daryl Cherny

            out of her Volkswagen bug

Skyward they flew

      gravely injured

After numerous death threats

No, you terrorists were going to bomb

      & made a mistake

Said the agents of repression

But no, FBI

      you know the truth

            & will not let us know

You know, corporate-government

      who the real criminal is

& after several years

      of living with those wounds

            that would not still her voice

                  her hopes       her dreams

Judi Bari has died

The beginnings of May

      when hopes & dreams of

                  workers       union organizers

                  anti-war activists

                  environmentalists

            sprout in the northern sun

                  to face the US corporate-government

The agent provocateurs set the bombs

& the agents of repression opened fire

      each & every time

The blood of our martyred

      brothers & sisters

            bathed the awakening earth

The agents shoveled       & shovel

      the toxic waste of their capitalism

            upon these memories

Burying them from our grasp

      our understanding

Burying our birthright

      created with our voices & actions

But we are clearing away the trash

      & carrying the glimmers

            of the martyrs’ hopes

            & songs of their voices

                  into the sun

Nourishing       & celebrating

      cultivating

            their dreams       our dreams

* * * * *

"The Beginnings of May (1997)" is part of Lorraine Caputo's work in progress, an (unpublished) five-part suite of poems about 1 May – International Workers’ Day – and its commemoration in distinct parts of the Americas (Mexico City, the US’ history, San Salvador, Quito and Havana).

Lorraine Caputo writes: I am a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. My poetry and narratives have been published in over 100 journals in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, such as Prairie Schooner, Canadian Dimension, The Mérida Review (Mexico), A New Ulster (Northern Ireland), Open Road Review (India), Cordite Poetry Review (Australia) and Bakwa (Cameroon). As well, my works appear in 11 chapbooks of poetry – including Caribbean Nights (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014) and Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017), five audio recordings and 18 anthologies. I have also authored several travel guidebooks. In March 2011, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada chose my verse as poem of the month. I have done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. For the past decade, I have been traveling through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth. You may follow my travels at Latin America Wanderer: www.facebook.com/lorrainecaputo.wanderer.