IN FIVE STEPS: THE ROUTE TO ESCAPE MARTYRDOM

by A. C.

1.     Do Not Mourn. Especially faces who have long endured

old style glass frames in spectacles. Glasses foraying into

the future, your uv tinted ones can never hope to testify

about. Vision for the sake of the land forsaken kind.

‘Deprived of rights over natural resources’ kind.

 

2.     Do Not Hope. For the Mahars (you are allowed to read

the fine print spelled D-A-L-I-T) to be commemorated

in reverence of plaques. For the girl whose soul may still

hope to rise from the well to testify in court. For people

giving their lives to see they live or die a notch better.

For the law to be your friend. Or for anything that may

well feed your spine. With the contraband fruit of justice.

3.     Do Not Plead Not Guilty. You are, for the matter. Guilty

of unlawful actions unheard and unseen of. Till one evening

men and women in uniform storm your doors, seizing you

by the collar. Or wait till you survive the guilt

once your child points at the face of an old grandfather

permeating all over the news.

Let them ask you then, “aren’t we taught to respect our

Elders”?

 

4.     Do Not Feel Shame. For watching over typed phrases, statements

and words supposed to inform you. Of an octogenarian’s contraction

of something the world understands as pandemic. But within custody

of course, disease runs trivial. What’s Parkinson's anyway?

Just another condition, neurodivergent, doesn’t kill eh!

So, up to you to believe or refuse if the octogenarian

had his share of sippers, straw, medicine and treatment

in custody! Lucky if you believe, sad if you do not!

 

5.     Do Not Think. Let your cognitive power focus upon

your yoga sessions, parallel world of a post pandemic vision.

Trips to catch up, the how to of a self-reliant nation. Who cares?

of UNDP rants on sustainable development, inclusivity of the

indigenous population? There are governments for that, honest

and fair. Meanwhile sleep peacefully, Human Rights often fear

the ivory towers.

Author's Note: Father Stanislaus Lourduswamy breathed his last in judicial/government custody after spending his entire life working for the uplifting of the Adivaasi community in India (especially in Jharkhand). He prepared a report titled ‘Deprived of Rights Over Natural Resources’ highlighting the plight of the Adivaasi landless population. He had been implicated in a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) still pending in court and kept in jail despite his age and other pre-existing health conditions. His death in custody speaks volume of the present situation of democratic dissent/treatment in the country.

A. C. writes from India. Her work has appeared in The Alipore Post, Life and Legends Journal, and elsewhere. She has been a contributor in an anthology titled Narratives On Women’s Issues In India: Vol 1 Domestic Violence published by the IHRAF, New York and a global feminist anthology, Looking Glass Anthology Vol. 2. 

THANKSGIVING 2019

by Anita S. Pulier

Pay attention
to this table
to this gathering
to the fall sky
the people who are here
and the people who are not.

Accept the truth.
Pilgrims did not come for religious freedom
but to insist on the practice of a punitive religion.
Indians not lost to gunfire or smallpox
were vigilant warriors, tribe pitted against tribe.

All this imperfection has
evolved into our holiday
celebrated by feasting,
reworking history,
telling apocryphal tales
as though history can be recast.

But please,
through the din and chatter,
find a moment,
pay attention, and
notice this rare opportunity

to be grateful,
to raise a glass,
with joy and hope,
that against all odds
we can yet become

that Nation,
that one Indivisible Nation,
of decent, fair minded celebrants—
and for that possibilty
we can be truly thankful.

After retiring from her law practice, Anita S. Pulier served as a U. S. representative for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the United Nations. Her chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane, and Sounds Of Morning, as well as her book The Butchers Diamond were published by Finishing Line Press. Anita’s poems have appeared both online and in print in many journals and several anthologies. Recently she has been the featured poet on The Writers Almanac.

AMAZON FIRE MONEY

by Kristin Yates






We’re consumed by the beef
we’re broiling
Earth’s lungs
to farm more cattle
we are burning every
minute the size of a football
field to breed, slit

over 40 million
throats

Lungs, logged

$Indigenous persons, the Mura tribe Jaguar Cashapona tree, the Barrigona tree
Pataxó tribe Giant Armadillo, the Parintintin tribe Harpy Eagle Strangler Fig tree

are the change
ranchers gain
but do not count

as if they own the forest

charred, already spent


Kristin Yates hopes more than space can see the price of our consumption. #ActForAmazonia

WORTHY

by Devon Balwit 

Isidro Baldenegro (d. 2017), a subsistence farmer and community leader of Mexico’s indigenous Tarahumara people in the country’s Sierra Madre mountain region was jailed for 15 months for organizing protests against illegal logging and his work to defend the forests, lands and rights of indigenous people.

Goldman prize winner Isidro Baldenegro López, who was known for his activism against illegal logging, was shot dead months after Berta Cáceres was murdered 

—The Guardian, January 18, 2017

Congratulations, you have won a prize!
Even now, we are preparing your bullet;
someone is digging your grave.

We thank you for raising your head above
the parapet, helping our assassins, for walking
ahead of the crowd, for speaking out.

Even as you topple, we are felling your trees,
damming your ancestral waters, wringing
profit from all that is profitable.

And do not worry; we have our eyes on your sons
and daughters, already seeking the next winner,
attentive, proactive, ready to reward passion.

Devon Balwit is a writer and teacher from Portland, OR. She has two chapbooks forthcoming—how the blessed travel from Maverick Duck Press and Forms Most Marvelous from dancing girl press. Her recent work has found many homes, both on-line and in print.