Wednesday, May 04, 2005

!Feliz el Cinco de Mayo!

Again, my practical Spanish, heck my anything Spanish, es horible'. But I thought I should put an explanatory disclaimer before my next poem post. It's called "Migrant" and it's probably one of my most politically-charged works. Which means that, simply, I don't do politically-charged works. So, I tried to make it personal. And I wrote as somebody else's voice. Some of my more political colleagues may disparage that, but I'm sorry, isn't that what a writer's supposed to do? Use other people to frame a voice, often the voice of the disenfranchised? I should clarify, I don't often speak in the language of power - politics - but I often have it as a sort of influencer, the idea of justice and truth.

Others may find some of the vocabulary in the poem unsettling. Good, I think, because so is our everyday approach towards the outsider, the alien, the migrant. It's evident in our language as USA'ers calling others 'foreigners.' There's a dirty word to make you feel welcome. Or our suspicions of illegals. I'm sorry, but we've all moved. Most of our ancestors have moved into new lands, conquered other people groups, etc., etc. Anyway, enough of the politics. It's just human nature. On with the poetry...

Oh, and tomorrow's Cinco de Mayo. Tomorrow being the Fifth of May.

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