Doing your duty

American Life in Poetry

Posted

June Jor­dan died in 2002, an Amer­i­can child of Jamaican immi­grants whose remark­able poet­ry is col­lect­ed in “The Essen­tial June Jor­dan,” a new col­lec­tion pub­lished by Cop­per Canyon Press. This elo­quent fist of a poem reminds us of what remains at stake in this long­stand­ing and nec­es­sary con­ver­sa­tion that Amer­i­ca con­tin­ues to have with itself.

Democracy Poem

Tell them that I stood

in line

and I waited

and I waited

like everybody

else

But I never got

called

And I keep that scrap

of paper

in my pocket

just in case