Who’s America?

The Face You Have Seen
April has come
(April of 1941)
The month we were waiting for
Through the dark winter
Begins. .

The old man with the face you have seen
Tough and kind and none too bright
But lasting
The face you have seen getting on the streetcar
At the mill gate stop
Or the gusty corner
Now under the blood-soaked handkerchief
Looks out at you
With blood oozing down the forehead
From under the handerkerchief
And blood on the collar of the old overcoat. .

"We'll be in it by April"
They said
Sure enough
The fighting has started
And this old man with the face you have seen
Is the first to get hurt

"Whose America?" somebody asked
And is this the answer?
Another old man
With a face you also have seen a face you have seen
Getting out of limousines
At the bank entrance or the War Department
Asks us to remember '94 (when the army broke the Pullman strike.) That was a time to forget I thought
And I think right now is the worst of all possible times
To ask us to remember. .
It is April now
The month we were waiting for
But was it for this
That we waited
The berserk cop with the brandished club
The armored bus spraying gas on the pickets
The mobbing howl of the press
And the rabies in Congress—
"to the electric chair with the strikers"?
Whose America anyhow?
Now in this April
We need to find out
Yes, all of us need to know
Whose America
Because if it really isn't the America of the old man
With the face which is our face
Tough and kind and none too bright
But lasting
Then, well we are going to have to do some thinking
Some mighty hard thinking. .
This is the April we were waiting for
This is the April
This April
Now