THE DEAD LAND
By Shant Norashkharian
"This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star."
"Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."
We have lingered for too long
On empty streets of ghost towns
In the shadows of dead trees
By the sides of dry fountains...
We have lingered for too long
By all the man-made temples
Searching for eternity
In their opulent altars...
We have lingered for too long
In obscure bars with pianos
Where only the jukebox sings
For a handful of quarters...
We have beaten with our wings
The air which we could not breathe
But fell down with broken beaks
Covering our cold shadows...
We have even left our skulls
Journeyed beyond our senses
To trail the tracks of our souls
Which remembered our old homes...
Perhaps an old photograph
A kitchen pot left behind
Our grandmother's wedding dress
Were they still in those ruins...?
Was it on that stone oven
Where our fathers had once cooked
Their cabbage soup which we craved
But yet never had tasted...?
In the thistles and tall weeds
We kept walking like hermits
Even when we had servants
And drove cars with shiny wheels...
And while we lived in mansions
We had no place to call home
Our velvet sheets were like shrouds
And our soft beds like sidewalks...
And when we wept with strong drinks
We fell asleep quietly
But there was no one around
To carry us to our beds...
O emptiness, emptiness,
Who can fight you, great empress?
The mightiest of angels
Falls before your nothingness...
We have lingered for too long
Like rudderless submarines
Which were trapped in shallow swamps
Rotting like half-dead corpses...
We became such easy prey
That predators ignored us
Only for pups we were play
Like catfish in shallow mud...
We've been here for centuries
At the crossroads of empires
Yet there is no trace of us
No one has heard of our past...
We have all been refugees
From one shore to another
Licking the palms of all those
Who would pay our day's wages...
We have crossed all the oceans
And learned strange languages
And we sold our dignity
To live in Rome like Romans...
We waited with outstreched hands
For a handshake with strangers
Yet received the same glances
As papers in parking lots...
We earned the wage of our sins
Kneeling down onto our knees
By garbage cans in alleys
Like whores from Third World countries....
We have nothing left of us
We have nothing to fight for
In the glitter of our age
We have nothing to die for...
We are remnants of kingdoms
Torn apart by raiding hordes
Who cares now if our glory
Guards the homeland we once had?
We are like outdated checks
Drawn on banks which closed their doors
We're unwanted immigrants
Without visas or passports...
This is the land of Ramses,
This is the land of Isis,
This is where the millions toil
To build tombs for their masters...
Who remembers them today
CEO'S and Board Chairmen
Who sat behind marble desks
And told lies like small school boys...?
From their steel and glass buildings
They gave orders to build bombs
To dump toxic chemicals
In the backyards of children...
What is left of the ladder
They used to climb to heaven
And their souls which willingly
They offered to their idols?
Where are their coffins on wheels
In which they lived day and night
And polished them each weekend
To display them on freeways...?
Their expensive three piece suits
Are now hanging in thrift stores
And their lives could be written
On just one page and a half....
And all that is left of them
Is their mindless silly laughs
Which are frozen on their cheeks
Like urine on cold sewers...
We have lingered for too long
We have become just like them
We gave up our minds and souls
For their robotic lifestyle...
Like them we think we desire
All we desire is to buy
All we desire we can buy
Since that is all we desire...
This land littered with statues
Of invaders who passed laws
To print their heads on dollars
They made on backs of their slaves...
In this dead land of cactus
In this land called paradise
Only lizards and scorpions
Multiply in dark shelters...
Our backbones have adapted
To our desert environment
They have become flexible
Not to climb but just to creep...
We have become just like them
When we roar we sound like mice
Our laughs are quick and shallow
Our passion a cheap balloon...
Do we need a Messiah?
For what, for whom, to go where?
Who can save us from dying
If we died before living...?
