Song for a film

for the world's political prisoners

shooting sprees
and bitter tribal fighting

the disappeared held captive
in underground jails

today with modest splendour
they killed another man they didn't know

and only one voice
that of the oldest there
was raised in protest

on the mudflats of an estuary
in a blinding rainstorm
a ragged man in shackles
is tried and shot in secret
by the moral guardians of a state
in failing health
and dying of complications
its land reduced to smoking ruins

firemen play their hoses
on the people
the spin on the story
ringing in their ears

another shot dead
in the back of a car
the remote village
in the mountains

an old man hanging from a tree

when dusk falls
the scenes take on an air of beauty

of spiritual renewal
an occasion touched with magic

tomorrow's news
the official statistics
the death toll of bigotry

______
gw2010