A Commemorative Poem In Three Parts Written By Joe Napora
For Maura Clarke :: Dorothy Kazel :: Ita Ford :: Jean Donovan
Raped And Murdered By U. S. Supported Government Troops In El Salvador :: December 2, 1980/
1547, Dec. 2, Death of Hernan Cortes
"So it was decided to put Cuahtemoc to torture."
We always made fun of explorers and
the missionaries who went with them
to the land of the naked brown boobies.
National Geographic photos. Our first entrance
into the commercial paradise of pornography.
And later the novels of Melville pointing
to how spreading the Word
lead to its breaking.
". . . .and when he was hanged, or was tortured
to reveal the treasures of Montezuma. His
feet were smeared with oil and exposed
many times to the fire, but his torturers
gained more infamy than gold."
Even young we wondered
how could they help
but be born again
into their flesh?
And yet. And yet. Even though we knew
just who was the enemy, who
had invaded our own innocence, who took
from us the child's heroes. Whole
peoples reduced to photos torn
from travel magazines. Even so
with them the missionaries took us
and in some small way redeemed us
from our unspoken privilege.
1980, Dec. 2
"Katun 8 Ahau"
Under the trees
Under the bushes
Under the vines
in such misfortune
The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel
The bodies form
a cross. This is not
the intent of the men
who use vines to drag them
out of the hole.
But it makes an acceptable composition
to the editors of Newsweek
who choose this picture for their centerfold.
No longer dressed in heavy habits
but in white and blue, and one
in a floral shirt, three other nuns
pray at the mounded dirt
the mounded dirt that was
but moments ago the common grave.
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Posted by Stubbornson at April 13, 2007 03:42 PM