| Port
of Oakland
Abby Bogomolny
"Oakland is not a poor city. It’s economy is the
20th largest metropolitan economy in the US and the 84th largest
in the world. The city’s Gross Metropolitan Product for
2001 was estimated as 99.4 billion, larger than San Jose, Denver,
Pittsburgh, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Singapore, Malaysia and
the Philippines. This vast wealth comes from Oakland’s
Port, the fourth largest in the US. However, the port has been
legally separated from the Oakland city government since the
1970s. None of its revenue can be used for schools."
Steven
Miller "Oakland’s Public Schools: The Coal Miner’s
Canary," 2004
The industry of shipping cranes,
the acid rain
the tanker train . . . the pulse, the pulse of global drain
. . .
Container ships sail past nearby oil refineries,
Clorox for your laun-der-ie
and methyl bromide strawberries
Suicidal pigeons don’t travel far,
when wealthy birds soar, when wealthy birds soar.
Smells of rising stocks
move container ships to fill with guns
as 18-wheeler diesels move sea-land containers
The industry
of shipping cranes
the acid rains
the tanker trains
the port takes juice that belongs to the City of Oakland:
Unified Public Schools, parks and rec, learning tools, museums,
libraries,
roads and paving, not only are the homeless raving, but everyday
people know weapons move to Iraq, as well as spandex for the
gap, plus everything electronic,
sails pacific deep and sonic. I’ve bought it, you’ve
bought it;
we’re all trained to buy it—
after it docks at the port of Oakland.
Who gets the benefits? Who takes the risks?
Suicidal pigeons fly, but don’t travel far,
when wealthy birds soar, when wealthy birds soar.
The industry of shipping cranes,
the acid rain
the tanker trains….the pulse, the pulse of global drain…
|
Fall
'05