by Shahin Shabanian
Who invaded Iraq and Afghanistan?
Who bombed Libya?
Whose proxies ruined Syria?
Who destroyed life in that area?
Who supported death squads in Latin America?
Trained Generals who tortured and massacred in Guatemala?
Who helped the massacre of civilians by Contras in Nicaragua?
Who encouraged coups and invaded for oil, copper, coffee and banana?
Our friends and proxies get our arms for free or for oil,
With the innocents’ blood they cultivate the soil
People whose livelihoods are destroyed by our decisions;
Their countries are turned into rubble by our military missions,
Become refugees seeking the safety of the wealthy nations.
Why are we surprised with these connections?
The recent history testifies to this notion.
Tell me if we don’t owe them for destroying their habitation.
As we bomb many, the arms industry will thrive
Destroying human lives, that is why so many will arrive
People are desperate when we damage their land
Burying their loved ones, leaving others behind
In pursuit of decent lives, with their gears in their hands
They come to our shores, full of hopes.
We remember all of that, we don’t have amnesia;
We promised to build them utopia,
After giving them all that “Shock and Aw.”
So, they came in rickety boats loaded to the rim
And they came in trailer trucks, locked up they seem
Drowning in the sea one or all
Rather than living under religious control
Or dying of suffocation, hunger and thirst
And we claim to be civilized and exceptional from the rest!
A three year old boy drowned with his mother and brother
The father escaped death, remembering this gloom
What a life to survive with the memory of loved ones doom.
They were escaping from dystopia we made
To the utopia we promised to build
Seventy suffocated in a locked container truck
Packed like animals, escaping Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq;
Imagine human beings crying in panic when death sounded its last knock.
Our media doesn’t show the pictures; too polite to offer
Since it might give us indigestion while eating our supper
So, the tragedy of the three year old boy and his mother;
People locked in a truck crying and holler;
Mother and child die crossing our southern border,
Shouldn’t cause us any pain and disorder.
They come with high hopes and haste to a new land
But we oppose refugees and immigrants, they disrupt our life trend
Many will help the new comers to blend,
While the rest are living in the La La land.