They meet
Face to face
Rare in war these days.
They meet
Somewhere else
Never in American land.
They look, they stare
Aiming at each other’s heart.
They can see their own future:
It’s the same
It’s the reason they've been trained
The same illusion of glory, of power
Of freedom, of worthy pain
Each is made to believe to be chosen and righteous
To carry the mission without guilt
Each will have a heroic burial
Or mural or gun wrapped around a flag
Doesn't matter if it is United States or Afghanistan’s
There they stand
Face to face aiming at each other’s heart
One is a terrorist
One a hero
And in battle you can’t tell them apart
Whether you blow up a village
A small town or a high rise
It’s war
And no one ever fights a fair fight
We always go into someone else’s land
To democratize
To conquer
To civilize:
To terrorize.
And these two soldiers
They are still locked into each other’s armed hands
And at last
Both pull their destiny at the same time
They both fall at the same time
They both think of all they had to sacrifice
So their mothers and sons
Could, maybe, survive.
Author Bio:
Yoseli Castillo Fuertes was born in the Dominican Republic in 1972 and at 16 migrated to the United States. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Spanish Literature. She is a bilingual-dominican-latina-lesbian poet-activist-teacher-aunt. Since August 2005 she has been organizing the Gay & Lesbian Bohemian Night, an LGBTQ Open Mic in Washington Heights. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various anthologies in New York, Madrid, Argentina and Santo Domingo. Her new poetry book, De eso sí se habla/Of That, I Speak is now on sale. cyoseli@yahoo.com or yoselicastillofuertes.blogspot.com/
Face to face
Rare in war these days.
They meet
Somewhere else
Never in American land.
They look, they stare
Aiming at each other’s heart.
They can see their own future:
It’s the same
It’s the reason they've been trained
The same illusion of glory, of power
Of freedom, of worthy pain
Each is made to believe to be chosen and righteous
To carry the mission without guilt
Each will have a heroic burial
Or mural or gun wrapped around a flag
Doesn't matter if it is United States or Afghanistan’s
There they stand
Face to face aiming at each other’s heart
One is a terrorist
One a hero
And in battle you can’t tell them apart
Whether you blow up a village
A small town or a high rise
It’s war
And no one ever fights a fair fight
We always go into someone else’s land
To democratize
To conquer
To civilize:
To terrorize.
And these two soldiers
They are still locked into each other’s armed hands
And at last
Both pull their destiny at the same time
They both fall at the same time
They both think of all they had to sacrifice
So their mothers and sons
Could, maybe, survive.
Author Bio:
Yoseli Castillo Fuertes was born in the Dominican Republic in 1972 and at 16 migrated to the United States. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Spanish Literature. She is a bilingual-dominican-latina-lesbian poet-activist-teacher-aunt. Since August 2005 she has been organizing the Gay & Lesbian Bohemian Night, an LGBTQ Open Mic in Washington Heights. Her poems and short stories have appeared in various anthologies in New York, Madrid, Argentina and Santo Domingo. Her new poetry book, De eso sí se habla/Of That, I Speak is now on sale. cyoseli@yahoo.com or yoselicastillofuertes.blogspot.com/
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