Who Cares?

Who Cares?

Who cares

about the Indians of Honduras,

Chile, Venezuela, Brazil,

Guatemala, Panama, Peru?

The ones who have cared for the rainforest

Since Adam

Was a little girl?

The Indians of South America are dying in massacres,

Their leaders are being murdered,

Their lands are being stolen from under their feet,

Their children are vanishing

They are menaced every day by military police,

Shot down if they refuse to leave

Or be enslaved

In the mines or cattle ranches

Corrupt governments and corporations will build

Where their ancestral forest

Used to be.

The Indians of South America are fighting for their lives

(land is life)

while the world press looks

at Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan,

(but not the honour killings) India

(but not the missing girls), China

(but not the missing girls),

The Indians of South America are blocking the roadways,

throwing themselves in front of bulldozers,

facing down the bullets,

(land is life)

while the local papers in my town devote

entire pages to pastor politics, fashion shows,

Hollywood scandals and wire stories

About how to safely remove snow

From the driveway (ignorance is bliss)

Or the latest bullshit Pat Robertson said.

The Indians of South America are storming the assemblies, demanding to be seen, heard, considered while i

sit here  in middle class, disconnected

comfort making poems ,

up to my fingers in guilt and remorse

for taking so long to say,

stop the genocide .

stop the genocide!

STOP THE GENOCIDE!

I give my voice  to the resistance but

Who cares?