An uncle born at the dawn of the 20th century
Lived to be ninety-two
Telling stories of a young man
Waiting with hundreds of others
On dark mornings praying for work
Loading railroad freight cars for pennies
While men called robber barons grew wealthy beyond avarice
And yellow-journalist, media barons built castles
In the hills above West Coast beaches.

there was no job protection
for the working man
no minimum wage
no medical
no retirement
not for the drones
that lived in factory housing
and shopped at the factory store
while selling their children into servitude
to work in the coal mines
so families wouldn't starve
after the Oklahoma Dust Bowl drove the farmers out
breaking more backs

Women fought and went to jail to earn the right to vote and own property.
Laws were born to protect children from factory, coalmine slavery.
The birth of labor unions was bloody and violent.
The Right hated FDR for selling out to the worker bees
Creating Social Security along with minimum wages and other benefits
For the masses, who were meant to serve the elite.