How close we could look into a bright future should two, three or many Vietnams flourish throughout the world with their share of deaths and their immense tragedies, their everyday heroism and their repeated blows against imperialism, impelled to disperse its forces under the sudden attack and the increasing hatred of all peoples of the world!
— Che Guevarra, Message to the Tricontinental, Havana, April 16, 1967
“Two, three many Vietnams,” said Che.
We dreamed of encircling the Empire’s neck
With a garotte of uprisings.
And the Empire hissed through its teeth,
“Two, three many holocausts.”
They came, small and large:
Indonesia Argentina Chile Uruguay
Brazil Peru Bolivia El Salvador Nicaragua
Honduras Iran Lebanon Yugoslavia
Congo Rwanda Afghanistan Iraq
Libya Syria Yemen…
(It would be easier to name
The places they didn’t come.)
And now, again, Gaza (again).
In Gaza, this time, the Empire says,
“I’ll spell it out for you.
When I kill—smite, if you will—
By the thousands or millions,
That is the point.”
Tens of thousands dead,
Twice as many wounded,
And so quickly.
This time we see as never before.
Gaza sears our eyes,
Afflicts our dreams,
Startles us awake.
And the Empire says,
“Do you see now?
I give you a hundred Gazas, a thousand,
The ones past, the ones to come.
I devour lives,
And I am always hungry.”