Human Maggots

This, according to a book,

A well-researched history,

Is what charity workers,

Charity workers helping

New immigrants to New York

From poor countries in Europe—

Countries in Europe, mind you—

Called those whom they were helping

Settle after quarantine.

After quarantine’s hardships,

People were often reduced

To pale and “huddled masses,”

Huddling en masse, for sure, now,

After that experience,

But really—human maggots?

Human maggots? As words

Go, we have to say, maggots—

Fly eggs eating provisions,

Provisions often corpses—

Suggests a particular

Nastiness—other people—

Other people, bear in mind—

As the manifestation

Of fecund death and disease.

Death and disease, however,

Aren’t maggots. What is eating

People, if you can repeat,

Can repeat and repeat, terms

Of abuse for each other,

Such as involve rotten meat?