I Have a Dream: Inaugural Poems for a New Generation

AUDREY NEGRETE Seeds to be Sown Coming from fields baked by the sun Where melons and grapevines grow From brown hands picking from dusk til dawn Even when no breezes blow The pickers who came for a better life Risking it all in their search For a job and a home on different soil Though not seen as of much worth Though looked down upon they pick and box The fruits to be taken and delivered To someone far away from the Central Valley Across streams and fields and rivers So a fruit bowl is filled for a man as he awakens And gets up to start the new day Walking the streets, he passes his friend She’s going into the church to pray In front of a shop sits an old, big-eyed dog Whose owner is playing a guitar The notes ringing out, set free by her fingers To be heard by those near and far But no music sings in the heart of the man As he walks home from work that evening One of his coworkers has been harassed For his beliefs, and now he is leaving Injustice burns through the blood of the man At the casual company attitude He believes people should be free to practice Whatever faith or way of life they choose He’s tired of seeing people down on others For the differences of which they’re afraid Each unkind word as though people aren’t All made of the same earth, different shades 97