Occupy Poetry

All of the words in this poem are drawn, in chronological order, from the quotes in Lizzie Widdicombe's Talk of the Town piece on the Occupy Wall Street protestors in The New Yorker of October 24, 2011

Something good will come out of it

Don’t get me wrong

But it’s not good for business.

(We would like to find

A sign language interpreter

Available in the here and now.)

Honestly, it’s great here

We’re well-fed

Warm at night.

I’ve made more friends here

Than I did in college.

Here we are in Liberty Plaza

And we’re trying to keep liberty going on this planet

And, actually,

This planet is in dire jeopardy.

(Think of all the reasons 
you didn’t want to be doing this!)

You have a right to protest

Brookfield, they have some rights too.

Fuck that.

I’m excited to be defending this space

We never knew

How publicly accessible

This kind of park would be

And now we’re testing it

It’s kind of fun.