Excerpts from/Extractos de
La revolucion emplumada
the revolution to be human

Arnoldo Garcia

my ancestors

have not yet

invented the wheel

they will never run over

innocent animals

possum

deer

buffalo

wolves

raccoon

birds

butterflies

insects

they will never pave over

acquifers

dam or divert water

never stop the flow

of rivers, creeks, streams

to the cosmic ocean of the natural world

my ancestors

will never invent

the wheel

the bomb

will never fiddle with DNA

will never fertilize in vitro anything

they will walk

where humans can walk

they will love

where humans can love

they will pray

where humans can pray

they will be human

where humans can be human

they will never be gabachos

that step on plants and other ancestors

recklessly

they will never

defecate or urinate

in the soul of the earth

in the water

[2]

Our revolution

has no martyrs

our martyrs

have no revolution.

we have no revolution

yet we have martyrs

young men and boys

who kill each other

because we have no revolution

police who shoot black young men in the back or in the front

The border brothers

make north and south

the north is nothing without the south

the south cannot exist without the north

yet young men and boys

kill each other

for lack of the four directions

the border brothers are both

north and south

North is a border

South of the border

North borders South

they are lost in their venganza

we are lost without a plumed revolution

[...]