LatinosUSA

IN YOUR EYES, I SEE

In your eyes, bro, I see anger, despair, and determination.
But please. Please do not approach the line any more. I don’t want to confront you with my baton. I don’t want to see you hurt by pepper spray.

I don’t want to report to my supervisors again and again, about the forces I have applied. I don’t want to explain to reporters, prosecutors and judges again and again what methods I chose to defend law and order during the conflicts.

I don’t want to beat you up in front of my colleagues.

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In your eyes, dear, I see sorrow and hesitation.
But please. Please stay away from our demonstration. I don’t want to be your enemy, for you are one of us.

I am tired of criticizing you as the tool of our oppressors. I am tired of pointing my finger at you, a victim of the system that you are defending. I am tired of seeing you pretend you are doing fine in your position.

I am tired of being a sympathizer of your dilemma.

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In your eyes, bro, I see regret and uncertainty.
Please, go home. Your voices are heard, things will be better tomorrow. Go home, stay with your wife and children, they have had enough of your relentless activism. More turmoil is not going to save our world.

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In your eyes, dear, I see fear and compromise.
Please, back out. Admit your effort to make any change on your part is futile.
Don’t you understand the system is using you and exploiting you by placing you in it?

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In your/my eyes, I/you see traumas of being discriminated against, wounds of being deprived with our languages, narratives, traditions and cultural legacies.

In my/your eyes, you/I see our shared history of blood shedding and ongoing suffering from injustice.

Please, be cool, man.

Sing our heavenly songs, chant our poems passed on to us by our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Say prayers to our ancestral spirits.
If we are powerless to mend the cruel divide between us, let us remember, we have inherited love.

And if the world offers no place for us to stand side by side, let us remember, we are born with dignity, we live with dignity, and we shall die with dignity.

In my/your eyes, you/I see you/me.

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We would like to thank C. J. so much for his collaboration and to let him know he is always welcome here.

AND

If you are a poet and would like to see your poem here published in LatinosUSA (English Edition), just email me, Francisco Bravo Cabrera poetry editor at ArribaPamplona@gmail.com

CHEERS