In Stuttgart, another one 
                     stepped in front of kids, teenagers:
                      He, too, already 66 – 
               an engineer who saw how merciless, the jet of water
                        of the water canon ...
                         He signaled to the cops as if it
                               touched their heart
                              and made them wide awake
                             to see what they were doing

                         They took him for a target, instead – 
                                 the man who wanted to help…
                                          protect kids…
                                    
                                 The jet hit him frontally in the face 
                                   A boxer’s punch couldn’t be worse
                           The eyelids are torn
                                The retina probably torn
                                                the doctor says
                                             The lenses of his eyes
                                                 are destroyed

                                    How peacefully the cops 
                                     dissolved the sit-in of children !
                           washed them away, with all the force of technology

                                           Blinded, now, who came to help.
                                             What do you tell him?
                                           Who is praising his courage?

                                              The one who stood up
                                           against two thugs merely,
                                               him, you celebrate

                                                      and you are silent 
                                                      when the other one
                                                        faced so many
 

                                                                        Oct. 13, 2010
                                                      
                                      
 

             
                                 When?
                                                
                 It’s only yesterday  
                         that  the media 
                                                 closed their eyes
                              to the violence of
              squads of cops taking on
                              the helpless and unarmed – 
                     kids, old people, who stubbornly sat down
                            in the street
                    
          It’s only yesterday that we began to forget
                what happened in Stuttgart 
               and still,
                            people injured
                                    are in hospital – 
                   hoping not to go blind, for good...

             Yet they whom we elected
                     are in a hurry !  They debate
                 the act that will demand
                                to punish more severely 
                          whoever violently faces the police
                          
                            But when, I ask                  
                        will they proceed to write another text
                              into the law books which
                           will not condone the misdeeds of the cops ?
                    
                        And will such law
                             be more than empty words
                               when, in the courts, they deal
                                          with brutal acts
                             of faithful servants of the state ?
                            
                                                              Oct.13. 2010
 
 
 
 

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