Poetry of War

Mikaela says:
The following poem was written by a high-school student in the Voces program last summer, when the decision not to release photos was first in the news. Graciela saw the Carlos Cortez print in the museum at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and wrote this poem in response.

Emotions That Come With Death and War

by Graciela Gonzales
June 2004


A box comes home warm
red white and blue
cloth keeping in middle east heat

the family knows that sand
not dirt
is still
under the fingernails

they are not soldiers
but soil-ders
because American soil is sacred
and they chose to protect the grains

if it was their freedom of choice
then why do I feel I should be with the family
in print?

maybe because bodies kept warm
by star spangled banners
makes me feel cold

like the families

maybe because I recognize
the grains of sand
under their nails as
the same soil I stand on

it only takes images like these
for me to understand
the newscasters’ numerical death reports
on the morning news

This print is from the 1960s
but we’re not in that century anymore
and pictures of red white and blue covered coffins
are no longer
in print