This poem written by my father Eugene V. Etler nearly 80 years ago speaks to todays world as much as it spoke to his. Substitute today’s headlines for those of the 1930s. Substitute Gaza for Madrid. Substitute drones for planes, carrying their deadly payload to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, however, the US and its allies are the aggressors. How many times have we heard the plaintive cries of those who want nothing more than to live their lives in peace and simple comfort surrounded by mudden walls as bombs fell first in Korea, then Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Laos, and El Salvador, and Guatemala, and Libya, and Iraq and Afghanistan and Ukraine. But now we not only make them but deliver them as well. Paintings by Leon Bibel Wilmington, Delaware --- Eugene V. Etler And when it was over And the planes had left And all was quiet --- The living and the dead --- Life went on Uninterrupted. And those who fled for shelter Embarked out into the sun And they lifted their fists And cursed The flying planes. For these were their mortal enemies These fliers of destructive death. The children they killed The women and men Their blood that washed The walls of Madrid. And the plaintive cry of a mother’s wail The silent grief of a husband’s dead The bewildered look of an orphaned child. The whining snarl of a hungered dog --- A chicken’s feather lost in the air. Look to it citizens of Madrid Reap your living And mourn your dead. You who survive --- In order to survive --- Must fight for your land --- Sweep away your dead --- And make room for the living. Here a child --- Dead Here a woman --- Dead Here a soldier --- Dead Here a citizen --- Dead Bury them In the soil to be Planted as seeds of Democracy. The planes are gone And work’s to be done. This is your work No one to help you. The world of civilization Has turned its back. This is your fight, it said, We shall have nothing to do with it, it said. Nothing at all, it said Neutrality, it said Non-intervention Non-intervention Non-intervention Until its words screamed Its blood message. Let Spain fight its fight And if Germany interferes And Spain becomes Italy’s career That’s their business --- We wipe our hands Of the whole affair. That’s what the world has said to you. Democracy is a pretty sounding word And the world of civilization Has claimed Democracy as its own And the pretty sounding word Has been translated now Into The living come the dead God, but long live the dead. Dead from the bombing Of fascisms coming. Dead from Democracy’s lie Our Democracies led them to die. Hold up their heads to the shame Bodies made dead and maimed Democracy’s new found fame. This crime with fascism they must share This bomb made --- where? ‘Tis true ----- Wilmington, Delaware.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:46:41 +0000
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