In Solidarity With the People of Egypt

Women protesting in Egypt

AP photo

Poem for the People of Egypt: On This Day of Awakening

by Magdalena Gomez on Tuesday, February 1, 2011

On This Day of Awakening

(for the people of Egypt; you are bread for a starving world)

For you, with fists in your voice,

who without arms or rope

break the aberrant mule.

(All apologies to brother mule

who once carried water

to my mother’s mouth.)

For you, who plant lush gardens

in the putrid fields of caution,

rousing the dead into epiphanies

and face to face contact;

For you who shame the silence

of tyranny’s allies

those thugs with perfect teeth

and unworn boots,

who tug at straining vests

from safe distances;

their only rebellion

a rumbling, soft stomach.

Threats arrive

from the sewers of greed,

where secrets,

and soldiers

huckstered from their youth,

are buried beneath

lies of bread.

The helicopters,

the trucks,

the guns,

the planes,

the shadows,

the sounds,

the gas,

the smoke,

the looks,

the signals,

the orders.

Check all of the above

for stamps of origin.

Cobra

rears up straight

from broken ground,

dips her tongue

deep into the bruise of night,

writing over Cairo

the undelivered letter

to be read by the world.

The promise of the last word

makes The People One,

making fools of governments

and masters who command

with broken sticks

poking out from their ears.

For you who

Stand.

Resist.

Rebel.

Survivors and Witnesses:

Tell.

Cobra,

each and all.

From every pore of body and soul

a million sets of eyes open at once

on the face of holiness;

a sacred prayer

erupts around the world

that in every language

sings: “Not enough! No more!”

-Magdalena Gómez

Copyright, 2011

*****

To my friends - this wonderful poem shown above was written by a friend, Magdalena Gomez, in Western Massachusetts. She has given permission for it to be passed along to others if you wish.

*****

Egypt: ‘Protesters streamed into Tahrir, or Liberation Square, defying a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces in the Nile Delta. The peaceful crowd was jammed in shoulder to shoulder — schoolteachers, farmers, unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes.’ (AP)


I just saw a news clip showing hundreds of carloads of people with their entire families coming into Cairo from all over, to take part in the million person demonstration - also, it is reported that the army will not harm them. This is good! Reminds me of the passion of the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States in the late 60's.

peacesojourner