"Against the Grain" (poem)
Kevin P. Gallagher is a poet and political economist. His forthcoming book (with Lyuba Zarsky) is The Enclave Economy: Foreign Investment and Sustainable Development in Mexico's Silicon Valley (MIT Press, 2007).
Full Article:
Wake up, wake up
the dawn has broken,
the birds are singing,
and the moon has set.
Ten-thousand years
is much too old.
Leave the milpa,
jobs will glow on cacti
in the desert,
and in the gold hotels.
The ruins underneath
were named
so for a reason.
The maize came
like a torrential rain,
flooding markets
with foreign grains.
Those who stayed burned
compact discs for pirates
selling Spears for ten
pesos in the Zocalo.
Those who stayed learned
to solder copper wire
into printed circuit boards
and take pregnancy tests.
They later came to know
they did not know
why they were asked
to leave again.
Those who stayed sow
seeds and trade for chickens.
Those who left
wash my dishes,
pick my fruit,
paint my house,
and send money home.
