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Free Verse

Ol' Macdonald had free workers


Ol' MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O And on that farm, he had 283,000 undocumented workers, E-I-E-I-O With a no-pay here and an ICE raid there Here's a struggle There's a sweat Oh, look, now Maria's in debt Ol' MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O But last time I checked He didn't have to feed his family of 7 with $1.57 He got credit for the crops he sold to our country, Amen His workers may be the ones who sweat and bleed But their deep brown skin can hide in the shadows Ol' MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O But when will we realize that he never touched the soil His pale skin could never He gets all the credit and praise Because it's his farm after all He has the money Ol’ MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I… no He owns them The humans who sacrificed everything for their kids to have a better future But those kids will only grow up to be called filthy monsters and murderers But Gabriela Pineda was only 6 years old when ICE separated her from her mother So who the fuck are you calling a monster Ol’ MacDonald had a farm It’s what we tell the kids The white farmer with a straw in his mouth But we know that he doesn’t understand anything The brokenness in our backs The tears in our eyes The nobility in our sacrifice
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This Poem's Voice

Your Poem's Voice

PersonalThemeAbstract

Blends personal/collective immigrant experience with abstract systemic critique

SparseMeasureDense

Multiple ideas per section: labor, exploitation, racism, family separation density

DarkSentimentBright

Deeply negative: anger, suffering, injustice, separation, dehumanization throughout

StillEnergyExplosive

Explosive throughout: profanity, direct accusation, rhetorical questions, moral fury

MicroLengthEpic

Approximately 45-50 lines; extended protest poem structure

PlainFigurativeOrnamented

Extended metaphor of nursery rhyme, personification, imagery of bodies/skin/sacrifice

LyricVoiceDramatic

Shifts between lyric first-person and dramatic direct address to MacDonald/society

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