Sadness and Solidarity

 

I am gripped by sadness,

clouds

of sea smoke

clinging to me,

waiting for the sun

to return,

bring

life again.

 

It's a sadness

I've long known.

 

First becoming 

recognizable

at a young age

when I read about

Washington's army

slaughtering the Lakota

at Wounded Knee.

Today the sadness

descends on me

as I see Washington's

darkness

illuminate the sky

via HIMARS rockets,

battle tanks being queued up

to be delivered to the front,

like the Hotchkiss guns

sent to South Dakota

in 1890.

 

 

 

The U.S. targets have changed over time.

Ukrainian 'allies' just hit 

a civilian hospital

in Novoaydar, 

(using Pentagon supplied targeting coordinates) 

HIMARS was long-range weapon of choice

killing 14 people and injuring 24.

Nonstop Nazi attacks in the Donbass

since 2014.

All on behalf of the 'defensive' NATO alliance.

 

No anguished cries  

are heard from western media,

nor from those who denounce Putin

for defending

the long-suffering victims

of US client state

Nazi terror along Russia's border.

What comes next 

to the war zone?

F-16's and nukes?

Out of my deep sadness

seeps energy for

solidarity

which I learned to sing about

in my farm worker union days.

 

In current times

I am moved to rail against

Raytheon, Lockheed Martin,

General Dynamics, Boeing

and the rest of the warmongers

(and their puppets in Congress)

making massive profits

by killing the so-called enemies

of the uni-polar pirates.

 

I've lost friends over this solidarity,

as one said to me,

'some people who you thought

were your friends 

never actually were'.

 

Hard to swallow that one.

 

On I trudge

through the deep layers

of sorrow.

My heart beating

so I know I am still alive.

 

As long as I breathe

I'll embrace the sadness

and keep showing

solidarity,

it's all I've ever known.

 

Bruce