Imagine the Angels of Bread By Martin Espada

This is the year that squatters evict landlords,
gazing like admirals from the rail
of the roofdeck
or levitating hands in praise
of steam in the shower; 


Manila Favelas
this is the year 
that shawled refugees deport judges
who stare at the floor
and their swollen feet
as files are stamped
with their destination…
The Nakba 1948 "Catastrophe"--Expulsion and Dispossession of Palestinians from their homes
This is the year that those
who swim the border's undertow
and shiver in boxcars
are greeted with trumpets and drums
at the first railroad crossing 


Mexican Border Wall Arizona
If the abolition of slave-manacles
began as a vision of hands without manacles,
then this is the year; 




if the shutdown of extermination camps
began as imagination of a land
without barbed wire or the crematorium,
then this is the year; 


Auschwitz Krema
if every rebellion begins with the idea
that conquerors on horseback
are not many-legged gods, that they too drown
if plung
ed in the river,
then this is the year. 


Che Guevara
So may every humiliated mouth,
teeth like desecrated headstones, 
Congolese Woman
fill with the angels of bread.
From Angels in America
In the Arms of the Angel by Sarah McLachlan

Comments

  1. Wow - that is one powerful, powerful poem.

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  2. Yes, Meri. I was deeply moved by its message and had to find photos to accompany it. Thank you for reading I apppreciate it!

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  3. As I posted before, if only people could view others through the same eyes with which we see our own children. :(

    I miss one particular photo from the previous version that was quite touching... a group of women trying to cross the border, holding onto their children.
    I just felt so sad for them, fleeing towards a better life... hoping their families would have a chance to grow healthy and prosperous.

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  4. Thanks Tara. Yes, I understand. Perhaps I should put that one back. It was wonderful. I thought that this one expressed what had happened to this woman but the other took in the larger scope of the situation. I will see if I can do it without "technical difficulties".

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  5. Words fall flat in describing how deeply I am moved by these words & images. Thank you, dear Noelle!

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  6. I am moved beyond words that this keyboard can express.

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