Welcome back to the blog, comrades!
Regrettably, this is only my second post since the creation of this blog early last year. Please know that I have big plans for this year and hope to be sharing much more in 2026. My focus this year will be on the protest song, primarily in the form of a weekly project I’m calling ’52 Protest Songs.’ This will be similar to my ’52 Form’ poetry project from my former blog, Astra Poetica, in that the posts will be weekly. It will be different in that I will spend much more than one week prepping and revising each post—in fact, I began researching for this project more than a year ago. I’m not quite ready to launch this new project, but I do have some original music to share with you in the meantime!
In addition to this new content, I’ll periodically bring over refreshed and revised content previously published on other sites. My hope is to have everything available here, or at the very least, discoverable from here.
Thanks again for joining me. And now, without further ado…my newest song.
“How can a human being be illegal?”
– Elie Wiesel*
‘Illegal’ by Adam Astra
Of all the things a human being can be
Right or wrong, weak or strong
Imprisoned or free
There’s one thing that’s simply
An impossibility
A human being cannot be illegal
A human being can be
A member of a gang
A gang that terrorizes
Kidnaps and detains
You can hide your face
Withhold your name
And treat it like a game
But you will reap your
Portion of the blame
Regret and shame will find you
And bind you just the same
Because a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal
A human being can be
Manipulated
By manufactured outrage
Strategically created
To sell the story of a righteous war
A holy land invaded
Have you traded your old friends
Your own family
For a fleeting sense of power
Over an imagined enemy?
Do you find your heart and mind
Now separated?
Are you left feeling alone
And alienated?
Because a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal
A human being can be
Dehumanized
Ostracized, objectified
Their dignity denied
Language loaded with hatred
Designed to demonize
You call him a criminal
You call her an alien
You call them all animals
You call them illegals
But a human being cannot be illegal
A human being cannot be illegal
Of all the things a human being can be
What will we be?
© Adam Astra (2026)
*Quoting Elie Wiesel
You, who are so-called illegal aliens, must know that no human being is “illegal.” That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?
– Elie Wiesel, from his 1985 essay ‘The Refugee’
The quote that introduces my song is attributed to writer, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and served as a primary source of inspiration. The full quote, which I likely first encountered on social media, is featured above. As with any quote encountered in this way, I did my best to trace it back to a verifiable source. Wikiquote, a wiki I hold more reliable and trustworthy than most, points to the 1985 essay “The Refugee.” This essay was reportedly featured in the book Sanctuary: A Resource Guide for Understanding and Participating in the Central American Refugees’ Struggle by Gary MacEóin (1985). I hope to someday be able to read the full essay to put to rest any lingering doubts about the quote’s authenticity. Until then, I’ll trust the information I have available to me.
Woody Guthrie’s ‘Deportees’
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? /
“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”
The radio says, “They are just deportees”
Another source of inspiration was “Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” a song (written as a poem) by Woody Guthrie in 1948, that was later put to music by Martin Hoffman. Woody’s own inspiration for the song came from news accounts of a tragic plane wreck that occurred in January of that year, claiming the lives of 28 migrant farm workers, who were en route to Mexico, being forcefully deported after doing hard labor for little pay on the farms of California. Woody particularly took issue with the fact that these 28 victims of an unjust, exploitative, and ultimately murderous immigration and economic policy went unnamed in the majority of reports shared in the news. He wrote his poem in part to right this wrong and to shine a light on both the identity and humanity of these 28 souls, tragically lost and dishonored even in death. Read the full lyrics here, via Genius. I’ll likely write more on this song in a future post.
Adam Astra 