Jen Fitzgerald

Hold the fort

For we are coming…

I.W.W. Battle Song

Mallet men of manifest destiny keep time; women waulking tweed keep time;

rhythmic stomps, knocks of cloth on plank; a song; if we still raised our voices

like progeny; like singing lineage; the fluid life of memory; inheritance; in time;

with time; in step;  

side by side

we battle onward

victory will come

who are my people; sing in Gaelic; seafarers and women waiting with child;

sing in Bantu; sing in Mandarin; of sugar beets and rail ties; sing in Arabic;

sing in Mixtec; sing in Polish; old world dirges cut to notes; where is the hymn,

cry, wail; listen; the souls of Everett Massacre still march the dock to shore up

the strike; still moor the barge, shot in the chest, singing;

look my comrade

see the Union

banner waving high

cadence of march-step is not chorus—…