This document contains summaries of 5 poems about social and political issues: 1) An anti-Vietnam war protest poem questioning what people are fighting for. 2) An anti-racism poem asking why skin color matters and promoting equality. 3) A poem protesting child labor and advocating for children's rights and access to education. 4) A poem speaking out against animal abuse from the perspective of a neglected animal. 5) A poem about the historical mistreatment of Native Americans and questioning if it was due to racism.

2. 1. What Are You Fighting For?
By Phil Ochs
This poem is an anti-Vietnam war protest poem. The
writer felt strongly against the war that was going on
near him.
Part of the poem:
Oh you tell me that there's danger to the land you call your
own,
And you watch them build the war machine right beside
your home,
And you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the war.
I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting
for?

3. 2. Anti-Racism Poem
This poem is about racism, and how it is wrong. This
poem makes the reader think, yes, WHY does it
matter?
Part of the poem:
Black is Black.
White is White.
Life is always
A racial fight.
Why does it matter?
Why do we care?
Would you see a difference
If the skin wasn't there?

4. Tear brimmed eyes
scan the garbage
In search of cans and
food
The eyes that never
saw
The sight of
playgrounds or school
The dry chapped hands
that only felt
The touch of hammers
and rags
The hands that only
know
How to clean and
scrub
And not to write and
draw
The dusty feet that
have never felt
The touch of a warm
shoe
Or felt beneath them
A carpeted floor
The feet that only
know
The prick of thorns and
rocks
A child, child like us
Who should have gone
to school
Who should have read
books like we do
And eaten ice cream
on a hot summer's day
Instead of picking
through the trash
Or weaving carpets
with fingers that
Were meant to hold
pencils and pens
A child, with childhood
stolen away

5. This is a poem to protest against child
labour. It tells the reader that children have
human rights too. The poem is talking about
a poor child that is being forced to work, it’s
about a child who never had any education or
luxuries.

6. • Power of three (the eyes, the
hands, the feet etc.)
• Emotive Language (Tear Brimmed
eyes, childhood stolen)

7. 4. Speak for Me
This poem was written in
protest of animal abuse/cruelty.
Parts of the poem:
I haven’t seen anyone for
days.
My bones ache for
attention,
As I see you walk away.
It didn’t use to be that way.
I guess I got to be too much
to handle
As I now sit alone in my
deserted land.
I have no voice of my own.
I need you to speak for me.
The days are long as I waste
away.
Nowhere to go, I pull at the
chains,
Welts at my
neck, blood, misery and
pain.
Can anybody speak for me?
As hunger rots my core, I
wonder where you are,
And why you have left me
here to suffer.
What agony did I cause to
deserve this punishment?
Can anybody speak for me?
Do you even remember my
name?
When your pellets silence
my
Howling cries in the night?
With not even a grassy
patch
To rest my weary head
upon,
Dirt is all that remains from
my constant pacing.
Can someone please speak
for me?
I lay here dying and
unloved.
As I am being tossed away
with the banana peels
And other gluttonous
garbage,
I needed you to speak for
me.

8. 5. Is it because I am black?
Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.
This poem is about the treatment of the native
Americans a long time ago.
Parts of the poem:
WHY do men smile when I speak
Why do men sneer when I arise
Is it because I am black?