In This Place, It Cannot Happen

It cannot happen here,
not in this place, not in this age--
Until a six-year-old boy is stabbed to death.

In Grand Central station,
a man punches a woman in the face,
telling her it is because she is Jewish. 
It cannot happen here, 
not in this place, not in this age.

It cannot happen here,
not in this place, not in this age.
Yet on a bus, a man screams, 
“We don’t wear that in this country!”
to a Sikh teen about the turban of his faith.

A university student calls for the murder
of his Jewish fellow students   
It cannot happen here,
not in this place, not in this age.

It cannot happen here,
Not in this place, not in this age.
Yet swastikas are spray painted 
on a Jewish business.

In 2018 on October 27th, 
A madman entered The Tree of Life Synagogue,
spewing hatred and shooting eleven dead.
But no.  It cannot happen here.
Not in this place, not in this age.

Yet remember,
Executive Order 9066,
those rounded up and sent to camps
here in this place.

Look hatred in its devil face,
see if you still can believe,
still convince yourself—

It cannot happen here.
Not in this place, not in this age.