Ode to Scabby the Rat

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There is a story in the news

And today's news is not awful

No overblown sensational narrations

Demonizing our capacity to empathize

But today the birth of gray

Like the color of a giant rat

Born in 1991 in Illinois

From the minds of Organizers

Ken Lambert and Don Newton

From District 2 of the International Union

Of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers

A rat towering as tall as the Willis Tower

With fangs the width of redwood trunks

And eyes glaring red from above

Like ray guns of justice

Standing guard throughout this nation

From small town to metropolis

Sea to shining sea

On the lookout for corporate

Free market hit men’s

Insatiable need to destroy the working

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Jason Kerzinski is a poet, photographer, and journalist living in New Orleans.