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FREEDOMWAYS                              FIRST QUARTER 1972

Today I saw a child make believe
he took the life of a youthful friend;
today I saw a child make believe
he took the life of a youthful friend:
children's games quite often seem
like the daily work of serious men.
Who will take them aside and say
a man is not a child at play.
Not at all,
not at all,
not at all!

They kill me if I don't work,
but work is killing me;
they're always killing, killing,
always killing me!

VIII

Slender knives of fire rend the folds
of night. Oblivious, the palm trees sigh;
with voices hushed in syllables of gold,
they talk of diamonds, jewels, silks and wine.
While roasting coffee, the humble Black of old
sees a worker's hovel burst in flames,
feels winds of independence blowing high;
an armored cruiser passes with the name 
Union Americana, followed by the same
great-grandsons of Drake, filibusterer bold,
to defile pure waters with imperialist claims.

Slowly there appears a hard stone hand
to close in a fist of vengeance pure;
the song of promise, clear and sure,
is breaking over sea and land
where the sun speaks to jungles with the greenest of trees.
West Indies in English, but in Castillian
Las Antillas, please!


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