Josh Nicolaisen
Upon I.C.E. Raiding a Fresh Mark Meat Packing Plant
The plant’s executives got no jail time
but lost underpaid, undocumented
workers—just some tools of the trade. No fines.
“They are animals!” their president said.
Putting down parts of animals butchered,
quickly culled like the fresh meat they packed,
inspected and dissected and stickered
and stamped, strictly sorted to be shipped back.
Their labels read Country of Origin—
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaraguan, Cuban, Dominican—
trays packaged on cool shelves, set to go,
waiting to be consumed, eaten, chewed through,
in lands that are no more what they once knew.
Josh Nicolaisen has taught English in both public and private schools for more than ten years and spends the summers as a caretaker on Squam Lake’s historic Chocorua (Church) Island. He and his wife, Sara, live in New Hampshire with their daughters, Grace and Azalea.
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