Ultimately, who is not an indigenous people
Enslaved and oppressed by empires?
Our Welsh and Celtic sisters and brothers
Have lost their sacred fires
While Romans in all their glory
Multiplied their pyres.

Many of us share the same blood with those
Who were on the “trail where they cried;”
And yet, we continually believe the elected government
And so quickly forget how they lied.

“We’re hated and pursued,
We’re afflicted and persecuted,
Only because we love
The impoverished languishing people.”

We have complied with an empire built on necessity
Which has made us accomplices to its acts of cruelty.
By working and depending on a structure
Which, in turn, depends on our taxes paid out of duty.

“We’re shot, hanged
Robbed of our life and rights;
Because we desire the truth,
And freedom for destitute slaves.”

And so we blindly support the high priests of all evil
Who teach others their tricks of torture and death.
And these bright students venture forth
To rob our own brothers’ and sisters’ breath.

“Chain us in iron shackles,
Tear us like bloodthirsty beasts;
You can only kill our bodies,
But never our sacred spirit.”

Yet, apathetic compliance does soil OUR spirit
And our only god becomes Mammon
Who has rewarded us with relative comfort
While others die of famine.

“You can murder us, you tyrants.
Time will bring forth new fighters;
We’ll struggle and struggle
Until the world has been set free.”

No one will tell us of the injustices we sponsor,
(The press is only interested in our genitals)
While the School of the Americas remains
A school of assassins for generals.

God please forgive me if I have
Knowingly or unwittingly been the cause of death
Of a person who is my better
Because they have risked all
For truth and ultimately for me!