“A Mothers’ March” – Eusi Kwayana
It is North and it is South
The Global Women’s strike
The Mothers’ march
March twelve, twenty one-one
.
This is not a poem: it is a salute
to the world’s Women and the Mothers among them.
In my native Guyana I would be in their ranks
With a few other men
Like the manly Payday Brothers of Ingland “the Bitch”
That once saw a strong woman as a witch.
.
Where is your hand ?
Salute the world’s women
Taking a stand against the world’s mayhem
Unleashed by sickly men
Who rule the war-waging world
Today
In England, Guyana, Haiti, India, Italy, Peru, Poland, US,
Venezuela.
Will grow electronic winds to waft their
Lovely, lifted voices through the wild social spaces
.
In Congo where men in uniform
Rape routinely;
In the land of the Afghans
Where it is terror versus terror;
In Pakistan
Where it is hazardous
To be civilian
Mothers!
Babies you bring to life and bring to Youth
Are bred as war mechanics
To kill others borne by other Mothers like their own
Kill with clean hands through smart, blind innocent instruments
.
That keep corporations viable with bottom lines
That spark orgasms on the stock exchanges
.
In the rich countries the war on poverty is over
And in its place, no armistice, no peace
Instead another war against the poor is raging
with fierce and focused fury
Everywhere dealing blows in detail
.
Mothers of our Race,
Claim their distinguished place
And the women leading the Global women’s march
Chant their beautiful Grammy -worthy song
.
For the world to live with just a chance of being human
and being civilized
Away with war whatever uniform it wears
.
Away with preludes, alibis to war
like inequality of gender and of race
Of region, tribe and doctrine
The children and all offspring of our bloods are crying
Caring, Not killing
Caring, Not killing! Caring, Not killing
.
And let the chorus- chant give power to the Mothers
Of the Middle East
And to the Midwest
In Guyana, in Venezuela, in Kemet nicknamed Egypt
No turning back.
eusi
