I dreamed my young homeless friends
were squatting a FEMA camp
making it no longer a prison
but a decent place to live
sharing their food and dreams
as they do in the alleys and streets
humanizing this mean land
a young soldier outside its walls
looked longingly in
at this future built in hell
by our new arising ones
— Sarah Menefee
San Francisco poet and organizer Sarah Menefee is a long-time homeless rights activist. She is the Homeless Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board, and a founding member of such organizations as the San Francisco Union of the Homeless, Homes Not Jails and 'First they came for the homeless’. Known for her poetry about the streets, her latest collections are Winter Rose, Sign and Holy Eel.

