TURN OFF THE NEWS
The spring of my discontent.
(During the Kosovo War)

By Amparo Jaramillo-Restrepo

Turn off the news
I can't take more lies.
Like the one that we're not at war
while I see merciless bombs
destroying the hearts
and souls of towns and cities
by shamefully smashing
roads and bridges
in foreign lands.

I can't swallow more lies
while I see the horrified look
of innocent children and grandparents
lost in the middle of
a crazy, manmade hecatomb.

Don't tell me more lies
by calling the lifeless people
'casualties' a deceitful word
to describe human victims.

I can't stand all the TV
and radio stations
parroting identical lies,
the same recycled words
about "successful air strikes!"
As if I should be proud
to see the twisted skeletons
of factories and buildings,
communication centers
and power plants,
showing the geography
of their deadly scars.
! I feel so ashamed!

!We, the superpower!

Playing war games against
poor countries everywhere
just to try on our lethal,
sophisticated arsenal,
a monument to human insanity,
with the money
we should use to fight
poverty and ignorance
cancer and aids.
With the time and resources
we should devote
to help people to fulfill
their American dreams.

!We the superpower!

Trying to force peace by war.
Freedom by fear and suspicion,
democracy by imposing
on others our system
and our prejudices.
Playing God and policing
every inch of land on earth,
while we can 't protect
our own children at school.

I don 't need a law to give
my grandchildren
the 'sacred right' to bear arms.
-It is in the Constitution!-
if they don't have the right
to a decent health insurance.
-that is not in The Constitution!-

I can 't swallow more lies.
Last time I came back to The States
they destroyed my suitcase at JFK
looking for drugs. While the arm dealer
next to me, was taken directly to his
limousine with a bodyguard.

Turn off the news
I can 't take more lies.

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