
“I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this”
Today was to be about the women in Puerto Rico who changed history, who sparked and sustained a movement against patriarchy, colonialism, injustice, imperialism, racism, misogyny. Today was to be about the women in Puerto Rico who continue to move a nation forward. But 150 women, children, men died – were murdered – off the coast of Libya, and the story that is told cannot stand. The story that is told is so much noise “tragedy”, tragedy, tragedy. Fear: feared drowned; feared dead; feared dead; feared drowned. These reports empty tragedy and fear of all meaning. As activist Helena Maleno has noted, Europe and the United States have militarized the borders into death zones, zones of necropolitics, necrocapitalism, necroborderlands, in which people are killed or abandoned to die. Criminalize all attempts at rescue or support, militarize the spaces between nations, criminalize those who seek rescue or support, fill the waters with sharks, and then, when the refugees and asylum seekers drown, call it a tragedy of monumental proportions.
And now the surface of the Mediterranean is as it was the week before, as it will be in the weeks ahead, unbroken, and all that is human has drowned in the sea, as we walk in circles, intoning, “Tragedy. Fear. Fear. Tragedy.” The tragedy is in the mirror as is the farce. I had said I wasn’t going to write no more pieces like this … “but the dogs are in the street. The dogs are alive and the terror in our hearts has scarcely diminished.” I had said I wasn’t going to write no more pieces like this. I made a mistake.
Jose Campos Torres
by Gil Scott-Heron
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this
I had confessed to myself all along, tracer of life, poetry trends
That awareness, consciousness, poems that screamed of pain and the origins of pain and death had blanketed my tablets
And therefore, my friends, brothers, sisters, in-laws, outlaws, and besides — they already knew
But brother Torres, common ancient bloodline brother Torres is dead
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more words down about people kicking us when we’re down
About racist dogs that attack us and drive us down, drag us down and beat us down
But the dogs are in the street
The dogs are alive and the terror in our hearts has scarcely diminished
It has scarcely brought us the comfort we suspected
The recognition of our terror and the screaming release of that recognition
Has not removed the certainty of that knowledge — how could it
The dogs rabid foaming with the energy of their brutish ignorance
Stride the city streets like robot gunslingers
And spread death as night lamps flash crude reflections from gun butts and police shields
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this
But the battlefield has oozed away from the stilted debates of semantics
Beyond the questionable flexibility of primal screaming
The reality of our city, jungle streets and their Gestapos
Has become an attack on home, life, family and philosophy, total
It is beyond the question of the advantages of didactic niggerisms
The motherfucking dogs are in the street
In Houston maybe someone said Mexicans were the new niggers
In LA maybe someone said Chicanos were the new niggers
In Frisco maybe someone said Orientals were the new niggers
Maybe in Philadelphia and North Carolina they decided they didn’t need no new niggers
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this
But dogs are in the street
It’s a turn around world where things are all too quickly turned around
It was turned around so that right looked wrong
It was turned around so that up looked down
It was turned around so that those who marched in the streets with bibles and signs of peace became enemies of the state and risk to national security
So that those who questioned the operations of those in authority on the principles of justice, liberty, and equality became the vanguard of a communist attack
It became so you couldn’t call a spade a motherfucking spade
Brother Torres is dead, the Wilmington Ten are still incarcerated
Ed Davis, Ronald Regan, James Hunt, and Frank Rizzo are still alive
And the dogs are in the motherfucking street
I had said I wasn’t going to write no more poems like this
I made a mistake
(Photo Credit: Miriadna.com) (Video Credit: YouTube)
Migration in the Mediterranean: why it’s time to put European leaders on trial http://theconversation.com/migration-in-the-mediterranean-why-its-time-to-put-european-leaders-on-trial-120851
Dozens of bodies found after migrant boat capsizes off Libya https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/26/migrants-rescued-from-sea-kept-at-libyan-centre-hit-by-airstrike
How the media framed the way we see the migrant crisis https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/aug/01/media-framed-migrant-crisis-disaster-reporting
Once migrants on Mediterranean were saved by naval patrols. Now they have to watch as drones fly over https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/04/drones-replace-patrol-ships-mediterranean-fears-more-migrant-deaths-eu
Sicilian fishermen risk prison to rescue migrants: ‘No human would turn away’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/03/sicilian-fishermen-risk-prison-to-rescue-migrants-off-libya-italy-salvini
Mediterranean deaths: 800 people dead in 2019 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/mediterranean-deaths-800-people-dead-2019-190809121948922.html
El ‘Open Arms’ aumenta la presión sobre la UE con un nuevo rescate https://elpais.com/politica/2019/08/10/actualidad/1565397662_453655.html
La resistencia asfixiante a bordo del ‘Open Arms’ https://elpais.com/politica/2019/08/11/actualidad/1565531026_652276.html
The 1951 Refugee Convention is falling short of its mission. Could the Global Compact on Refugees help? https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/07/26/the-1951-refugee-convention-is-falling-short-of-its-mission-could-the-global-compact-on-refugees-help/
At least 30 people feared dead after tragic rescue in the central Mediterranean https://www.msf.org/least-30-people-feared-dead-after-tragic-rescue-central-mediterranean