July 19, 2004
|
After they moved them across the line—the river or the road— they moved into their houses of wood or mud, began tending their corn, their wheat or their olives. They marched them off the sacred land: ancestral land steeped in mythology; steeped in the blood of those who died defending life and liberty from imperialist cowboys or crusaders. Surrounding them with barbed wire, huddling them in ghettoes, on reservations or in refugee camps, they kept them poor, kept them hungry and desperate, and easy to find. With Hotchkiss Guns on wagons or with Apache helicopter gunships mounting .30mm chain guns and HELLFIRE missiles, the end results are the same: members of an ethnic group die. When pressed about their measures, they use terms like "hostiles" or "guerrillas" or "terrorists," neither answering the question posed, nor countering the bloody evidence. Once the people rise-up to strike back, determined to reclaim land or to seek retribution for the damages, they, with the cavalry, or with the bulldozers and tanks level the field. Imagine! Marching them to the death camps, to the showers where the first bathers expected pure water, only to find they were an ethnic impurity being efficiently slaughtered. Now feel the machete in your hand, fresh from the massacre, up close and personal. Now deny that! Deny that innocent children have not been butchered in the name of god. · · · · · ·
Poetry on Swans Gerard Donnelly Smith, a poet and musician, teaches creative writing, literature and composition at Clark College in Vancouver WA. CERRO de la ESTRELLA (Logan Elm Press, 1992) was chosen for The Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio, 1992. Excerpts from THE AMERICAN CORPSE (10 poems) were published in Apex of the M in 1995. He is the current director of the Columbia Writers Series, an Honorary Board Member of The Mountain Writers Series, and co-advisor of the Native American Student Council at Clark College. He has also organized readings for Poets Against the War. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this work on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work on the Web without the expressed written authorization of Swans. This material is copyrighted, © Gerard Donnelly Smith 2004. All rights reserved. |
This Week's Internal Links
The Case for Nader-Camejo - by Louis Proyect
The Left And The Election Choices - by Edward S. Herman
Whose Imperial Patriarchy? - by Eli Beckerman
Bush Lied! - by Frank Wycoff
Confronting The Towering Lies Of Empire: A Eulogy - by Phil Rockstroh
Legislative Process In The US Two-Party System - by Philip Greenspan
Courage - by Richard Macintosh
Welcome To The Polyculture! - by Milo Clark
Thirsty Invaders, Chasing Heat - by Manuel García, Jr.
Lester R. Brown's Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble - Book Review by John Blunt