Even Los Angeles
George Bowering
Watching U.S. television
we hear about patriotic duty
in Vietnam fighter plane factories in Los Angeles
& the women make good money.
Do they have children, the women
on the assembly line? Women have equal rights
according to the civil rights bill.
That’s fair. The fighter planes
give equal rights in Vietnam too,
with no civil rights bill.
Are there any civil rights in Vietnam?
The U.S. is spending billions in Vietnam.
The billions rain from the sky.
Making holes in Hanoi.
Making jobs in Los Angeles.
Even Watts.
Bowering, George. “Even Los Angeles.” The Open Letter 6 (Feb. 1967): 17.