mining equador

Carlos Zorrilla

It's possible.

That community led development.

Two translational mining companies

criminializing leaders of the community

wrecking social havoc in the communities

standing up to the

destructive development

the name eco-terrorist

those against development

become terrorists

wars over language are faught repeatedly

for peacefully protesting an mine

extraction

violence

mining economies

34 biological jewels.

The ones with big bellies

would come and

destroy the jewel

of lush forest and birdsong

in return for 15 days

of global consumption

create desertification

12-28 species all endangered.

Mining water contamination

goes on forever

that long time

2000 years of zinc contamination

how can this happen?

The government. lack of regulations. world bank. weak institutions. corruption. unregulated investment. high demand for metals. unethical lifestyles; wrong life premises.

the cultural matrix of our lives.

they wore jeans.

jeans boots and teshirts. they stood in front of their gates. and the men came with guns and tear spray and cameo.

after dialogue with the officials they were turned over

ex military security guards

community interviewed the thugs later on. no one went to jail. not the canadian mining company that funded it all.

lost their concession, fined.

the company - the law suit in canada, - kicked out of stock exchange.

the communities triumphed over transnational mining interests.

The mining companies came to the land.

The people of the land

they had been told they were poor.

Internal peace is number one.

WHat is the point of money if you can't have peace.

peace adn security. is the most important part.

consumption and lifestyles and social devestation

and environmental devestations

we are directly involved.

how to make the connection more real?

stop being more unethical.

close link between consumption and devestation...

exquisit

exquisit

stories of those peacekeepers

beirut jerusalem baghdad

who keep meeting.

they knew their generation failed.

they go to the meetings. they argue.

and then they keep coming back.

Years: how to build a shared existance.

after the meetings they stand outside

chain smoke and talking about their children.

in this way

they come to know

each other's souls.

the signs on their walls:

'when you have lost all

what else can you lose, so fight'.

intergenerational anger. alienation.

Will that be the story of climate - justice?

ignore the real apathy and despair at the risk

of your children's lives

posturing. when people talk about their children,

they talk differently about conflict

than when they talk about themselves.

exquisit - the human soul.

So she loved – as easily as breathing

It always had been that way

And she was well loved

But really

What did that matter

What bread and butter

Did love create

What oceans did it save

Whom could it actually help?

Her heart- did something so

Intangible

Matter

at all?

The lioness will slay

for her cubs

The father will forsake all others

For his sons

A man

Once overturn a table of money lenderes

Then ride through town

On an ass

They say he

Turned his cheek

Then raised the dead.

He loved the wicked;

And through love, changed

She once said -

Your greatest gift is your heart.

I scoffed that into a forest of cacti.

Now

Cut by my own knives

I know at least one answer to that

‘So what’ question -

A life time of poetic

action.

True terror:

that deep

Transformational

Unconditional

Love.

let me turn towards that fear…

the beekeeper's constitution

Beekeeper

do you (ever) remove your bee-mask

that you just might

taste

the honey?

or for one such as you

(how many divorces?)

does that necessitate

a constitutional amendment

perhaps even

a convention?

i'm told

bees

can be gentle

when we

can be still.

---

Then again

maybe bees

are impatient

for us to learn

to fly

so they might show us

such discoveries:

open flowers.

tracing the sweetness

to its source.

(though us humans, we need

the production the work

from nectar to honey

the work of the hive the work

of conventions

for the pleasures of continued consumption

for honey, amidst desertification)

---

You said sometimes

you laugh

sometimes

the bee lands on your

fingertips.

An image:

the bee tracing the distance

from finger to knuckle

(another you would have used those knuckles

to punch that man who dared

to say such a thing

to those who had next to

nothing).

Image:

a bee whispering

secrets of hidden brooks and sweet nectar

of your shadow-light of cacti and willow

in the dancing language only bees know

into the exposed softness

your skin, your hand

you: known?

the bee asks

simple questions:

who is this

flower?

Sweet or sour?

is this my hive?

And one to another:

How faireth

your queen?

is it really you

who wrote and now sustains

the dance of the pattern

of that old

constitution?

Would you rather

re-write the whole damn thing

and fly

in a different direction?