Until Forever Commandante  

                                                    by Dottie Payne
................


We're here, Commandante--

  

                                      Here, on standby--

Right in the room

next to you.

We've filled the halls

and all the waiting rooms too;

We're all the way out the door

  

Commandante,

  

And there's standing room only

                                     out in the parking lot;

The streets are overflowing:

  

                                     In Cuba

                                     Venezuela
Bolivia 
                                     and Mexico;

                                     and in San Francisco,

                                     at Mission and 24th.

  

Your reinforcements have arrived.

  

**************************************************************************

  

 

                                   Until Forever, Commandante

      

We're here Commandante.

  

We're here tonght at Mission and 24th

  

to call forth

your reinforcements.

To say the day has come
for us to assure you,

for us to declare solidarity

                                       with you

for us to honor you

by becoming more 

                                       like you.

                                           We're here.From the East,

       the West,

       the North and

       the South;

  

Here from Europe,

       from Asia,

       from Africa

       and Latin America;

  

Here from Iraq and Lebanon;

Here from Venezuela and Palestine;

Here fresh from the streets of Mexico;

Here, at Mission and 24th.

  

                                     Until Forever, Commandante!

     

Here because we recall
you and Che getting off

that meager little boat--

  

                                 and the sheer impossibility of it all.

 Here because we saw

you, Celia and Camillo

pick up

those guns--

                                 young, audacious, strong--

and become the embodiment of all our hopes;

   

Here, because, like Marti,

we know we are all mestizos;

Here, because, like Che,

we are all illegals--

and like him, we honor no nation's borders,

and we'll just keep on crossing,

     I say we'll keep on crossing,

                   keep on crossing,

                                             into the US

                                                         Mexico

Canada

                                                         Argentina

                                                         Venezuela

                                                         Bolivia;

  

Because tonight, we understand Commandante

  

Here, at Mission and 24th;

  

We're here to say we're ready and reinforced:

  

                                  prepared to also go

                                  to the Congo

                                  where 600 children

                                  still die

                                  every day;

  

                                  prepared to also go

                                  to Bolivia,

                                  because Che was not wrong,             

                                  and you did not betray him;

                                  prepared to give

Evo a hand,

                                  to become part of Che's new band

                                  willing to make our own historic claim

                                  against those who killed him;

                                  to become his beautiful, severed hands.

  

                                        We're here tonight Commandante

  

To declare, alongside Mandela,

that without Che Guevara in Africa

there never would have been an Angola.

                                          a Mozambique,

                                          an ANC. 

  

                                       We're here Commandante.

     

And we're strong because

history has already absolved you;

because we remember the Moncada

 and we know what we must do.

  

We're here to pay homage to you
because you are Cuba,

and Cuba is us:

  

      because we are the one million plus

     homeless on

the streets of Lebanon;

      and we are the 60 murdered each day

     in the Gaza Strip;

  

     and because we are the victims of that

     Israeli request for wide-blast

     bombs from the US;

    and we are the horrific, slow death

    from white phosphorous;

    

So, we are here Commandante.

  

And we have tried and judged them,

found them guilty,

and commit to be their punishment:

                        

                                        Until Forever, Commandante

     

We will fight for a world

whose name has always been Juan*-- 

will dignify with our lives

                                  your song--

will defy the god-squad of atrocity,

will wear your rage  

against those who rape

our vision of a more humane society--

  

will emulate your virile vengeance

against their criminal imperiality--

will affirm your defiant stance

against a boy-man fake president
at the helm of the world's

most brutal killing machines--  

will stand toe to toe

against the genocide

of our friends in Palestine.

  

                                        We're here tonight Commandante,

  

Here at Mission and 24th:

  

Vowing  to fight,    

                            not capitulate,

            to make rockets of all this recall-

                            and never stop firing them--

           to make missiles of audacious acts-

                           and to strike relentlessly with them--

           to become tanks for justice,

                grenades for righteousness,

                cluster munitions for freedom:

  

                                            Your reinforcements have arrived
  

Not because we idealize and mystify you,

  

but because El Che loved you

                  Camilo loved you

                  Celia loved you

                  Pombo loves you

  

                  Bolivar was you

                  Marti was you

                  Gomez was you

                  Sandino was you

                  Zapata was you

                  Geronimo was you--

 Cuba is you:

And we are you;

I say we are you,

                                       We are you Commandante  

And like yours and Che's,

ours will be magnificent days;

our actions will avenge their wrongs;

our lives will be

your unfinished song!  

                                             Until Forever, Commandante!

  

*******************************************************************************

  

We're here--

here on standby;

right in this room with

you--

filling up the halls--

and the waiting rooms too--

standing room only

out in the parking lot;

The streets are overflowing:  

                                     in Caracas,

                                     in Mexico City

                                     and La Paz;

                                     in San Francisco,

                                     in Lebanon

                                     and Iraq;

  

                                     Your

reinforcements have arrived.

  

                                      Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

  

                                           

* Pablo Neruda  

 

  

  

dottiepayne