A Tree Grows In Aztlan

They wanted to clean up society with a rake
that would pick up all the brown leaves,
turning the city nice and white.

Tumbling and tumbling the brown leaves
were gathered in a pile
and sent off to prison---

there to be de-veined, crushed for fodder
to enhance the reputations of the warden,
and the judges and the cops back home.

But some leaves would not let themselves
be destroyed, some leaves would not be defeated,
some leaves would not lay down and die.

And so El Tapon rose up, became a giant tree,
marched back into the barrio,
called the barrio good, and nurtured it,

made us realize that the barrio
is nationwide and worldwide.
Brown leaves fall from the trees in his honor.