huellas en la arena (footprints in the sand):

for enrique morones & the border angels

we carry the water down

we carry the water down

llevamos el agua abajo

to the floor of the canyon

carpeted with sand

we carry hope down

we carry hope down

llevamos esperanza abajo

we carry compassion down

we carry inoculation for hate modification

racist hate that sliced full life water bottles

bigoted blades draining liquid life into the sand

we replace the empty with the full

we replace the empty with the full

reponemos el vacio con el lleno

we replace the senseless with the sane,

we transform the greed with the sage

change fascism to freedom

reverse hot hate consternation with cool water of life

singing Indian songs recalling simpler times

when sand was not symbol of desperate human rivers

when human beings were not for sale

when a wind called justice

danced to one land sans borders

to border angels' smiles

but we are symbols too we are symbols too

somos simbolos tambien

we are reminders that in a sea of hatred insanity

in an ocean of fascist freedom thieves

we embrace strong raza care

over the glacier carried stones

over cactus and scurrying critters

among a dozen hundred rivers of footprints painting sand

bringing liquid peace among briars and burrs

but never life saving shade

among snakes and scorpions

with a dearth of clouds in the burning desert sky

and when the sunshine state wildcat

succumbed to the boil the brain heat

vomiting the unbelievable manipulation

puking the unbearable exploitation

of the poor and the marginalized to the ad nauseam

a great reprieve was spoken by the elder

the ancient admonition that was handed down

from generation to generation

that we are all spokes on the same wheel

connected in the center

and the 700 buried not too far from here

los sietecientos enterrado cerca de aqui

forced by brutal bigot bersin to die in brutal bigot heat

the 700 murdered by state violent paper writ,

by the new bottle old poison eurocentric hegemony hate,

the 700 buried so far from home

might have left this river of injustice tracks

to remind us that this desert death is unjust

this desert dying is as unamerican as

corporate kings and queens

plundering broken lives from impunity

from let them eat cake arrogance,

from facist foreign policy―

so we carry the water down we carry the water down

llevamos el agua abajo

we move―dousing hatred's fire of those who have never been hungry

those who have never been thirsty

those who hold the gold, making racist rules

sponsoring vigilantes breaking hearts and breaking lives,

descendants of immigrants crucifying immigrants

deputies of injustice slaughtering 5,000 innocents

pale writers of so many unnecessary epitaphs

but we are writers too we are writers too

somos escritores tambien somos somos escritores

and there are more of us than there are of them

so we all carry the water down

entonces llevamos todas el agua abajo

until there are no more footprints in the sand

all of us carry the water down

through the prickly cactus in the suffocating heat

we all carry the water down

to raise the hopes of desperate desert walkers

we all carry the water down

all of us carry the water down

singing songs of justice singing songs of peace

singing Indian songs of freedom until one glorious day

there are no more desert deaths

see that beautiful day when

there are no more no more

no more footprints in the sand

no mas huellas en la arena

jim moreno summer 2010

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