Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

Rebecca  Villarreal

33 years old
Washington, DC

Rebecca Villarreal is writer, teacher and visual artist at home in Washington, DC.  Her book, First Come, First Served was published by Mama Chelo Press in 2001.  She is on the board of Teaching for Change: Building Social Justice, Starting in the Classroom.

The Paloma’s Lament

(Paloma = Dove)
for Our President, January 23, 2003
Washington, DC

i cannot name you
son of sons
for you only go by the bastard of your middle initial

i can only ask you
how many palomas
white feathers
curucucú
must fall to win?

it’s minus sixteen degrees tonight
the next zip code over
i escape to the theater
away from your headlines
away from your ranch

i only ask you why a man of means
stayed so close to home
before moving to my neighborhood

Were you afraid of sand and outdoor markets?

Or was it the trill of another tongue?

now you embrace the last resort of the incompetent
despite halting words
from the civilized

nodding, i see you embrace your wife
confused
and happy your daughters stay on dry land
drinking to old papá
and his trigger finger

the weight of dead palomas
rests on you
your middle initial
and the lands you never visited

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