In memory of Paulo Paulino Guajajara,
a 26-years-old indigenous Guajajara leader
killed in an Amazon rainforest ambush
allegedly by loggers in the Araribóia Indigenous Reserve
You heard of the guns in the garden of Eden
it’s a common term for my home
my forest floor that spreads cathedral over me—
return me to that soil. Blood will spill,
the sound of a bullet grazing the air
puncturing the vast hemisphere
your lungs included here. We hear the air escaping
with the crashing canopy, they bring
the whole world down around you and me.
They bring the violence. Always you and me
left to defend the trees. Here in the forest
and down your street; toes in the tarmac
roots curling beneath a choke of exhaust.
And I say fight. For we are losing, unless we do,
losing that great blue firmament that is not
heavenly, has no protection from these men
with guns that stormed my garden.
Helen Pletts
.
.
Horrific and devastating. Bless that good man. The loggers have got to be stopped. And we all need to help by ending our flesh eating, as ‘cattle’ farming and soya crop growing for animal ‘farming’ is what is driving this terrible destruction and violence.
“Not until the last tree has been cut down, the last river poisoned…will Man realize he cannot eat money!” (Cree saying)
Comment by Heidi Stephenson on 8 June, 2024 at 7:14 am