Artwork © Luis Lázaro Tijerina

 

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Scream of Life

Siqueiros, red star blazing with brilliance
in this time of anguish and darkness,
You, that son of a country
with volcanic murals expressing vast histories,
the fragile scaffolds of those
who dare to live against the tyranny,
Water and Fire is that great cusp where Mexico
swings in the wind, that great calendar
of this world.
You, beneath florescent bulbs
in crowded Mexican cells
where they imprisoned you,
prison walls of hate, Aztec chambers resurrected
like hovels in ancient Mexico City
where you honored life with vibrant murals.
There, you used black shoe polish
in bitter solitary confinement
to depict those primal forces,
those political reckonings of living and dying.
You were the scream of life.
You were that spray gun
creating gourds
and avenging indigenous warriors
on rough Masonite board
among the gods of time and space,
Aztec sun without end
from the arid hillsides of Chile
to smog-filled Los Angeles with her Chicano houses
of ochre and pale blue fresco light.
All this march of humanity was you,
You, brother, like Phidias,
a hero amid the modern ruins.

 

Luis Lázaro Tijerina is a military historian and military theorist. He is a published author. Mr. Tijerina admit that he writes poetry and paints easel works as an outlet for the more intense work that he does from a professional position.