FORWARD

Visiting the Wisconsin capitol one year

after protests to collective bargaining

On the third floor

under the great rotunda

there’s an advocacy

hearing for the disabled--

a Down’s syndrome boy

is flapping a paper, it’s

a crayon drawing

to fight budget cuts,

he’s growling like a tiger,

his grrrr swelling the dome.

Outside the meeting room

a clump of legislators

caucus. The boy waves

his drawing and growls,

grrrr, he’s no poster

boy, he’s an avenger

for action from the

gray suits, his prey.

In the Assembly

Chambers the legislators

honor the memory of

one of its great fallen

statesmen with a

proclamation and a

plaque for his

surviving family,

all of this is duly

entered in the record

and the legislators

vote and clap for

this fallen lion of

the people.

In the great room

a page delivers

cheeseheads to

an Assemblywoman—

they sit piled on her desk

like perfect faux

cheddar wheel slices.

The Assembly honors

the makers of these

wonders as the speaker

dons a cheesehead

and smiles for a

photo-op and partisan

snickering.

Then let it be known

that an 11-year-old boy

named Noah is called

to the chambers, he’s

the citizen who raised

money to save a

woman’s home from

foreclosure—she raised

100 foster kids

in that house--the

Assembly claps and

bestows Noah with

the Hometown Hero

award and thus

the sworn members

under this rotunda

applaud this fierce

boy for achieving

where they have

failed.