and refuse to fight for our lives and for our ordinances,
they will quickly destroy us from the earth.”
-
1 Maccabees (2:40)
will never be purged away; but with Blood.
I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself
that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.”
-
John Brown
Listen,
in
these cold nights,
voices
ride the wind:
Ave
Marias uttered
at
a bedside altar
a
murmured i love you between a couple
in
a tent under a viaduct
the
prayers of a child whispered
into
the carpet of a Mosque
the
war cries of Water Protectors
camped
near a pipeline
meanwhile,
the faces change,
but
the story stays the same:
He
shed much blood,
and
spoke with great arrogance.
The
people mourned deeply
in
every community…
young
women and young men
became
faint…
Even
the land
trembled
for its inhabitants…
and
police joke about brutalities over lunch
and
troops gather at the border
to
unleash tear gas on children seeking asylum
from
unnatural disasters in Honduras
(where
U.S. troops are still stationed,
while
more wait in Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Japan, and all across the
planet)
and
bombers fly routinely over China's waters,
while
Chinese children compete with computers
to
make more computers
and
wages everywhere drop
like
bombs
and
families around the world open empty cabinets
while
perfectly good food sits on the shelves of stores
until
it is thrown into dumpsters
and
the dumpsters are locked.
and
shiny shops spread through the city like boils
while
rents soar
and
more and more
residents
move out (to where?)
and
the unhoused gather on the corners
and
outside our grocery stores
and
places of worship
for
the citadel became an ambush
against
the sanctuary,
an
evil adversary of the people
at
all times.
On
every side of the sanctuary they
shed
innocent blood;
Because
of them
the
residents of the city fled;
she
became a dwelling of strangers;
she
became strange to her offspring,
and
her children
forsook
her.
Her
sanctuary became
desolate
like a desert;
her
feasts
were
turned into mourning,
and
storefronts close,
and
factories rust,
and
leaded water runs through our taps,
and
another shelter is shuttered in Uptown,
(the
list of friends I pray for grows longer every day)
and
Lew and Diana take their children
and
teenage grandchildren,
and
now their infant great granddaughter
into their small apartment
while
violence spreads and closes in
around
everyone I know
Alas!
Why was I born to see this,
the
ruin of my people, the ruin of the holy city,
and
to live there when it was given
over
to the enemy…
Her
temple has become like a person
without
honor…
Her
infants have been killed in her
streets,
her youths by the sword of the foe…
All
her adornment has been taken away;
no
longer free, she has become a slave.
And
see, our holy place, our beauty,
and
our glory have been laid waste…
And
see how they destroy us
de-story
us file
and
defile us turn our visions into
his / story of our lives
caught
in their net / worth
until
the star of David represents Apartheid
and
the stars and stripes look like babies in cages
and
Lady Liberty seems to be shouting Heil Hitler!
and
the Scales of Justice stand for currency exchange
and
in this world,
what
does a Menorah mean?
or
the million lit-up mangers?
or
the eagles on our currency
(the money that multiplies
as it kills off the actual eagles)?
as it kills off the actual eagles)?
Will
Harriet Tubman tolerate
her
face being placed on a twenty-dollar bill
(her likeness woven into the very sinew
of
Andrew Jackson’s on the other side)?
And
who will remember, this December,
as
they light the Chanukkah candles,
the
murder of Fred Hampton in the night
and
who will light one for Wounded Knee,
and
Standing Rock,
and
tell their children why,
at
the camp of the seven council fires,
because a nation is in peril
when it places its first people last
and values the deadness of oil
over the sacred waters of life?
Who will tell the story
of the veterans who went there
to kneel at the feet of hundreds of nations
And who can explain
why the flag with a serpent is waved
by Zapatistas in the mountains
and the government that hunts them?
Or why the rebels in Chiapas
cover their faces with masks
and their bodies with rifles
Or
why John Brown ordered rifles
to
be shipped west in crates labeled “Bibles”
Or
why, tonight, when we light these candles,
we
think of these courageous and their deeds
That
we may never forget
the
battles they fought
when
all other choices failed
And
so they learned the proper use
of
both prayers and weapons
so that one day
only prayers might still remain
For these, tonight, and every year,
we light and burn these flames:
so that one day
only prayers might still remain
For these, tonight, and every year,
we light and burn these flames:
One
for
John Brown
One
for
Harriet Tubman
One
for
Fred Hampton
One
for
Standing Rock
One
for
Palestine
One
for
the person without a warm place to go tonight
One
for
the children born in the cold
and
One for us,
that
we may become worthy
of
this prayer
for
you,
and
me,
and
all of us
who
(re)dedicate ourselves
to
the land that gives us life
who light candles
in the darkest of times
and in the most dangerous
of places
who light candles
in the darkest of times
and in the most dangerous
of places
