David Jackson

but how can I tell you?

Spring is a greening, warming,

brightening moment,

a coming alive, a surging

of life”s energies, spring is you.

But how can I tell you?

The sheen of your skin,

soft and sweet and pure,

the fragrance all about you

lingering in tiny swells and eddies

draws me out, pulls me to you,

you as you are snarling and snapping

in the dull dripping shadows

and the air heavy as mist.

***

In Aunt Alice”s house:

“Bless this kitchen

and season it with love” the little plaque

says propped in the corner

right behind a scrawled note: “put

bag of fertilizer in garage” she left

to remind herself.

“The memory”s

the second thing to go, you know,”

she said.

***

Song of Guantanamo Bay

We have come back from hell
Back from Guantanamo Bay

Our heads off our shoulders
Holding our heads in our hands we came
Back from Guantanamo Bay

We were tortured night & day
Back in Guantanamo Bay

Till our eyes dropped from their sockets
and our hearts missed their beats
Back in Guantanamo Bay

Which awful crime had we committed?
No one answered no one said
no one near no one human
Back in Guantanamo Bay

Still we prayed in utter silence
Back in Guantanamo Bay

Could not touch nor feel
Could not walk nor smell
Could nothing but pray
Back in Guantanamo Bay

In our orange overalls
No one near no one human
Back in Guantanamo Bay

In those cells or senseless shells
as time melted in eternity
no one answered no one near
Damned in Guantanamo Bay

Were you made of flesh or stone?
Were you human, was this Earth?
Executioners passed by
Back in Guantanamo Bay…

Some returned alive and kicking
Out of Guantanamo Bay
But we’re dead and still remember:
Damned be Guantanamo Bay

Amparo Perez Gutierrez

***

Keep Your Eyes Off My Son

Verse 1
Get your eyes off my son
I didn”t raise him for you
Not the wars that you start
Not the evils you do
Don”t give a damn bout your cause
I don”t care bout your plan
Just protecting my son from that old government man

Refrain
Cause I can see the black madness of your soul
I see my country”s children march in service of your goal
I see the nations burn
The horror you”ve begun
Your destiny
Our tragedy
But not my only son

Verse 2
See the power you hold
See the tyrants of old
Are you one and the same
Are you part of the mold
He won”t be bleeding for you
I”m not letting him go
Keep your eyes off my son cause he”s just startin” to grow

Refrain
Cause I can see the black madness of your soul
I see my country”s children march in service of your goal
I see the nations burn
The horror you”ve begun
Your destiny
Our tragedy
But not my only son

***