Chile, September 11, 1973

          “King rules or barons rule;
          We have suffered various oppressions.”
              –Murder In The Cathedral, T.S. Eliot

You could hear dogs howling in Santiago.
What draws us to La Moneda, that fortress like a palace,
is there a danger to witness there?
Are we to be afraid of the passing jets in the skies?
There is a lust for blood
in the air, smog, brittle voices of the voiceless,
and broken glass from windows
pierce a slight September wind.
Death, here among us.
Will we survive the oppression?
Who can be content when the wind blows fierce,
then calms down like a whisper,
shackling a smooth song
to those dying again and again
by automatic fire?
Such is the way of a coup during the days
of corruption.
The merchants will go about their business,
There are products to be sold to Argentina, Bolivia,
and far off places.
It is almost mid-September, and I am reminded
of what Sophocles said,
“Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.”
Bells of Cathedral Metropolitana de Santiago ring,
people go about their daily work, but hesitantly
as they did when the coup delivered its promise of murder.
Plaza de Armas, with palm trees and tourist buses
relieve tension
as if the tension were never there,
as if the president who shot himself
were not seared into memory,
as if a Chilean poet’s words about Chile were expunged
like mustard or vinegar by a sponge.
How the butchery of September 11th in Chile,
will go unnoticed by us,
unobserved or not counted for much
in our own country.
We have our own deaths to grieve for in September.
When the wind blows thin across our lips,
when the world is not with us.
we will forget the martyrs who died in another land.
Consolation is near us and not near us,
as in these days, dying becomes more or less important
than to remember a peoples’ tragic revolt
against daily oppression near seascapes in Chile.
We wonder what winter will bring to us
as we think of this day in dark September
with the wind howling in our ears.

 

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.