SHORT POEMS AND SPIN-OFFS: EMILY AND THE EXPERIENCE OF SURPRISE
by Denise Levertov
Page 14
"Thinking about El Salvador"-I might say this could equally be called "Thinking about Nicaragua as Attacked by the Contras." There are indeed a number of places in the world that it could apply to. It was written originally in 1982 and I then added a note when I published it in 1984 to say that the title originally included that date 1982. But, alas, the death squads and the army continued the slaughter, with the United States' help.
THINKING ABOUT EL SALVADOR
Because every day they chop heads off
I'm silent.
In each person's head they chopped off
was a tongue,
for each tongue they silence
a word in my mouth
unsays itself.
from each person's head two eyes
looked at the world;
for each gaze they cut
a line of seeing unwords itself.
Because every day they chop heads off
no force
flows into language,
thoughts
think themselves worthless.
No blade of machete
threatens my neck,
but its muscles
cringe and tighten,
my voice
hides in its throat-cave
ashamed to sound
into that silence,
the silence
of raped women, of priests and peasants,
teachers and children,
of all whose heads every day
float down the river
and rot
and sink,
not Orpheus heads
still singing, bound for the sea,
but mute.
