For my poetry class, we were given the assignment to create a series of poems on a broad social issue. I chose class and privilege in America and abroad, using Santa Claus and the holidays as the frame of reference.
Along with this, I followed the apothegm "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." I feel that Newton's Third Law quickly sums up the devasting effects of Neo-Liberal global policy and also of American consumerism.
I wrote the series in four poems, and today I am posting the fourth piece. The collection is forthcoming from Pretty Grrrl Press (Canton, OH) and will be out in time for the Holidays.
The poem is below the fold.
Isidro Segundo Gil: An Elegy
On December 5, 1996,
two little girls lost their father.
Paramilitaries traded his life for ten bullets.
They murdered Isidro Segundo Gil, 27.
He had worked for a Coke Cola bottling plant
in Columbia since he was 19.
He was a leader in the plant's trade union
and as such, a target for the paramilitaries
that the plant manager hired to bust the union.
His wife sought for reparations and in 2000
she was rewarded, just as Isidro was.
Now their children live as orphans.
Coke Cola does not dispute these deaths,
but instead disputes their liability in them.
Nothing has been done to curb this violence.
In 2004, Coke Cola earned $22 billion in revenue.
After the murder of Isidro and the busting of the union,
new workers at the plant earn $130 a month.
Every year as far back as I can remember,
Coke Cola put out a new holiday ad featuring
digital ice-skating polar bears enjoying a Coke.
My parents' eyes used to light up a little
when they would see what these bears were up to,
even though we drank only Pepsi.
This year I am going to give them this
poem as an early Christmas present
and I'll watch their eyes when the new ad runs.
And together we will wonder
if Santa Claus brings any presents
to the children of Isidro Segundo Gil.