Noche De Los Muertos

by Phil Goldvarg

I lagrima a tus huesos

    born in some mass grave

y bilando con tu alma

    half chained into pain,

I bring chisme y comida,

    Pan de Muerto

        baked in Aztec ovens,

bread that resisted attempted conquests

    and the flesheaters hunger

        for the gold skin of our ancestors,

I mix sangre con mis lagrimas,

    lay them gently on la tierra de nosotros,

watch them sleep deep

    into the center of anguish y esperanzas

        that are layered across petrified bones,

cantamos todo la noche,

    ancient rhythms that circle unplanned death

        and uncover the imprisoned disappeared ones,

I engrave familia on cold stone

    that sits unmoved and tearless

        con corazon fria,

            like the ice of a killer's eye,

I break mis huesos,

    pour their brown besos

        across your grieving voice

that echoes in chambered dungeons

    searching for release,

tu Dia de Los Muertos

    is every day

        and flows into suenos de la noche,

I lay drunk and cold

    on your deceiving blanket,

        mascara verde,

            rainbow illusion,

your breath is a mariposa

    en las sombras de mis ojos,

wings that vibrate

    strange answers to mis preguntas,

I bring congas to sing mis palabras

    y conchas to sound an old language

        that ancestors have gifted to us,

I become danzante,

    feathered Quetzalcoatl,

        dawn dancer,

symbol of redemption

    rising from the flames of hope,

I burn my skin

    upon tu sangre seca,

watch them embrace con sonrisas

    that move past la noche

        and kiss the sun,

I lagrima tus huesos,

    mis huesos,

los ninos who lay among disconnected dreams

    in some unmarked grave,

the tortured screams de mi gente

    buried in cement walls

        of unknown prisons,

I am el rio de recuerdos

    who washes away

        pain's memory,

tu eres mi otro yo,

    you are me, I am you,

        aqui en la Noche de Los Muertos.

Phil Goldvarg

Hgold42734@aol.com

Not In Our Name

Not in our name

will you murder this world,

disappear our children,

cremate our future,

pit sisters and brothers

against each other,

not in our name

will you sign death warrants

to mother earth,

while you mass weapons in greedy hands,

finger on the trigger,

eye on multiple targets,

not in our name

will you dismiss collateral damage,

result of smart bombs that are dumb,

will you drink innocent blood,

evaporate fleshless evidence

into nameless mass graves,

not in our name

will you make midnight arrests,

hold secret trials in dark shadows,

take our rights without a thought,

stop dissenting voices that question

your self indulgent motives,

not in our name

will you embargo children and elders

into a grave of hunger,

will you speak with two tongues,

cover homicide and genocide

with a self proclaimed king's mask,

not in our name

will you feed ghost corporations

that claim earth, water and

sky for themselves,

will you silently swallow

our Arab and immigrant

sisters and brothers,

not in our name

will you consume La Nena,

Isla de Vieques,

will you push plan Panama

across a Mayan dream,

a child's breath,

not in our name

will you stop resistance

to this abusive regime,

will you profit by treason

that bargains away

all human life,

not in our name,

not in our name,

not in our name.

Phil Goldvarg 3/11/02 ©