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

Edgar Silex

Chief Nanay Appears in the Holy Land

From an article in the Washington Post

a Palestinian
no legs one hand
spent the last
several months
fleeing soldiers
out to kill him

one leg and an arm
were blown off
when tanks opened fire
on his house
a year ago

he lost
the second leg
in an attack
on his house
in April

in the end he used
his only hand
to shoot at soldiers
advancing
on his house

he couldn’t move
so he stayed
covering for those
who were with him
while they ran

they bombarded his house
with heavy machine-
gun fire from U.S.
supplied Apache helicopters

but a direct hit
by a rocket
left family members
with nothing more
than his head
and a small chunk
of his torso

then they bulldozed
the house he shared
with his pregnant wife
three children
and his mother


Nanay was a Chiricahua Apache wounded fourteen different times defending his land.

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