SINGER ~

printed & published as a poem card by Bob & Susan at Longhouse 2010

FARAWAY, LIKE THE DEER’S EYE

for Victor Jara, Chilean folksinger



Ah yes, now I believe I know —

A cool breeze and very early morning

A wood thrush breaks from the pasture,

Fences have all been mended,

Here and there animal hair.




I think of Jara; Victor,

By jesus as they busted your fingers

And you kept to the last moment

Something loving, say your sister, far in your belly.

Then they beat you like the backside of a horse

And it all fell — my chore bucket spilled

Suddenly in Vermont.




I may still have the gathering of birds,

The pull of this long river

Where I wade to my waist, undo my hair and wash slowly

Strong sweat and black flies,

A quiet day with the saw

Now near its end.




But Chile stays — forever.

How in the hell can you ask me to forget

A father dragged down from an attic

And pumped into a scream

In front of his huddled family?

The blood goes everywhere

And they live with it

And the killers — shit,

Something the raccoon wouldn’t even wash.




Daylight goes.

Evening is soon.

My friends, we are to become

The last light in the pond.



Bob Arnold
from For Neruda, For Chile ed. Walter Lowenfels (Beacon)

See more Victor Jara at A Longhouse Birdhouse here

victor jara: democraticunderground.com
home: photo © bob arnold