Riots - 1965

Come, you people, and see.

Come you rich

And all that have enough.

Come and see

Where the poor are.

Look at the breeding ground

Of anger and frustration.

Come and see

Poverty at its worst.

The people are crowded

Thousands in a small space.

The rats, huge and bold,

Walk across your feet

And sleep with the children.

No place to play,

No place to sleep,

Person piled on top of person

Up to the sky.

Impossible you say?

Where?  You ask.

Look at the cities -

Harlem, Watts, Chicago -

All the large cities -

New York, Los Angeles, Detroit.

This is where riots are born

In the slums of Cleveland and Newark

Where men and women

Have no chance to live,

No chance to work

And little happiness;

And anger boils out

And frustration takes its toll.

For many are unskilled

And jobs are hard to find.

Go down to the slums and see;

Be one of them for a day, a week,

And know what frustration is like,

And why all the angry people

Erupt in violence.

Written during the height of the riots.....in 1965.

Will we humans ever change?