first volley - Red-Blooded

Please respond, in the language you find most comfortable.

Red-Blooded

Let's talk about this.
Exactly what are we afraid of?
Different skins, different thoughts?
"These people are not like us."
Nor we like them.
Legends say we fear
and fight the barbarians.
A receding panorama
of battle upon battle.
Millennia of genocide
proudly proclaimed.
We must be strong warriors,
rough, sharp, explosive,
valiantly a barricade barrage
protecting Our valued and values
from Their predation.
Lines must be drawn clearly.
Womanly, childish fuzzy vulnerability
cast far behind, confined to
defended shelters
kept at bay with bitter laughter,
raucous play.
These patterns built up over
generations serve us well,
minimizing weakening contamination.

(c) October 10, 2008 Laurie Corzett/libramoon

Comments: 10

Tonia, who hugs trees G. Oct 10, 2008, 11:11pm UTC

I do not know where that fear is born. For are we not all the same lost souls seeking redemption upon our own unique path?

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Sandy Knauer Oct 11, 2008, 11:17pm UTC

I'm with Tonia. I know I wasn't born with that fear and wonder if it is born in others, or learned.

Nice job, Laurie. You always make me think.

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aniko Oct 12, 2008, 3:22am UTC

It's fairly certain to be an evolutionary instinct, Sandy, judging from the behavior of pre-literate tribes and even bands of chimpanzees toward each other. Like with many other such instincts, we can use our higher cognitive functions to overcome it. This is why there tends to be an inverse relationship between intelligence and education on the one side and racism (jingoistic nationalism, etc.) on the other.

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Atticus *. Oct 12, 2008, 9:38am UTC

Awesome poem libramoon

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Georgiana S. Nov 15, 2008, 7:03pm UTC

Very poignant. These sorts of bias and racial lines are only fear that they will now be lower on the food chain than those different to them. it is their ignorace that keeps them back.

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aniko Feb 8, 2009, 5:53am UTC

I forgot to say when I was first here that this is a great poem. I especially like these images:

A receding panorama
of battle upon battle.
Millennia of genocide
proudly proclaimed.

and

Womanly, childish fuzzy vulnerability
cast far behind, confined to
defended shelters
kept at bay with bitter laughter,
raucous play.

reply to this comment

Beth G. Oct 17, 2009, 6:56pm UTC

This was excellent libramoon! This is certainly a terrible issue that is not easily overcome.

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first volley - Red-Blooded

Comments: 10

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