Participants on July 24, 2021, demonstrating to demand healthcare and Medicare for all. Photo: Urszula Wislanka for News & Letters.

A high-school youth from San Jose read her poem at a Medicare For All (M4A) Rally in San Francisco on July 24.  The author, Meriam Ahmad, is a high school junior in San Jose, and chair the South Bay chapter of Students for a National Health Program in Northern California.

The Deal Is Done

by Meriam Ahmad

My heart stops
When I look at the bill in my hand
I was feeling ill. Isn’t it your job to cover it?
I don’t understand.

I thought we had a deal. A mutual transaction
I pay you regularly,
You help me occasionally.
What’s with your inaction?

Tell me, what exactly
Am I now supposed to do?
Tell me, how exactly
Do you spend what I pay you?

It’s almost medieval. My pain, you profit off of it
It should be illegal. My pain, do you get off on it?

Suits applaud, they camouflage the vile truth of your pursuits
Empty words, these worlds of hurt rot a nation at its roots.

We had a deal. But the deal is done
You can leave now. Your time has come
My friends and I, we know what you do
And we know our nation has no room for you.