In Memory of Rachel Corrie (1979-2003) (a poem)

Road Kill

I thought
if they've taken a bus to the Hague
let's take a Caterpillar
I mean I know it couldn't be
the really expensive kind
that they use to ride over the olive trees
and over people's homes
and over Rachel Corrie
and back again

But it could be the basic model
a symbol of how crushing
oppression is
a symbol of how crushing
taxes are
and what those taxes pay for
in foreign aid abroad
and I would paint it black
and tour around any country
to warn about non violent resistance
and what happens in a militarized state
that overrides the laws

and after they still do not
take responsibility for rachel's death and tom's
and countless others
I shall paint it again in pink
for that color between
blood's red stain and hope
and I shall empower the Machine
and redefine it as Art, Roadmap Art!
a Sculpture a Monument a Memorial
and I shall engrave and scratch and sign
all the names of those whose lives
have been thus crushed.

and when we are done
depicting depravities
there could be a museum for the bus
and for the bulldozer
and all the other scrap metal in peoples lives
ripped apart by bullets and bombs
and we can visit there
whenever we need to mourn
or be reminded
of what we have allowed to transpire.

Mary La Rosa 3.16.04