Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.
Ellen McGrath Smith: Plea to the Plutocrats During Holy Week
We will all be together, you will never avoid it,
in the air, the earth, and the ash. No matter
how thick the walls you can afford. In there
they call us dust. Crush us here, see us there,
doesn’t matter. Can’t you all sit back & let us
exist?
Copyright 2026 Ellen McGrath Smith
Ellen McGrath Smith teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic program. Her books include Nobody’s Jackknife (West End Press 2015).
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Yesterday I parked next to a police car to walk to our protest. I automatically felt a little fear until he waved. This poem is so perfect. Thank you.
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Very difficult to be this succinct and original on a current topic. Brava!
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Yes! How simple, direct and entirely honest. Thank you Ellen
Last night my son and I demonstrated in Haifa against the war. The police were really violent. There was a great deal of anger in the crowd, but the ones who were violent were the police. My son shouted at them at one point – you should be protecting our right to protest, not attacking us. I thought to myself – why cant they just let us protest, let us be. Why can’t the government listen? We want to live not war…
“Can’t you all sit back & let us
exist?”
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Same here in the US, Noelle. The local police are generally okay, but the Federal police, especially ICE, are violent and arbitrary.
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I think your lot are even worse than ours. But fear is fear…
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Yes!
Ellen—perfect!
Yes!
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