Roger Stoll

For Michael: Physician’s Assistant, FMLN guerilla, jungle surgeon He picks up from the tray Surgical scissors, forceps, a gauze sponge His work heals the body The tools become the work Become his hands Become him In El Salvador in la selva he was a guerilla To heal the body of a country To bring el pueblo Dignity Victory Sovereignty His hands picked up from the dirt A Tokarev pistol An AK-47 rifle A grenade These tools became the work Became his hands Became him All the while he dreamed of...

No, it’s not possible, They said. You cannot stop the Hegemon, they said. It will devour each one: Russia, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, China… And then it will devour you. There is nothing to be done. We answered, Perhaps that is true. But we know who you are. And what we know Will eventually destroy you. If not you, then your successors. If not your successors, Then their successors.

Democracy is on the ballot this year but some things will not be: climate catastrophe; our holocaust in Palestine; our direct and proxy violence in Africa, Latin America, Eurasia; our seige-by-sanctions against a third of the world’s people. Also not on our ballot are some things at home: health care for all; the right to choose; fixing crumbling infrastructure.