Nonviolent Struggle

It cost them nothing
to raze our houses,
demolish our orchards,
spray shit on shop fronts,
shoot our kids in the back,

but we take the high road
being nonviolent in the main.
We smile when they grimace
and we suffer the lash
with buried wrath.

After years of subjugation,
when at last we take power,
we treat the former oppressor
like a next-door neighbour,
sending over trays of dates.

Behind windows heavily grated
they wait for us to bring goods,
a paper in their own language,
from the pockmarked shops,
where they feel so unwelcome.

See how our amputees shine
at table tennis, wresting trophies
from the thugs we conquered.
Watch as our chess champion
topples their dithering king –

such is life for those imprisoned
for acts of reprisal, the arsonist
briefly incarcerated, the mugger
free on a day pass to tend
his ailing mother.

Douglas Smith, formerly a teacher of Anthropology at York University, is a homeopathic physician.and author of several books on alternative medicine. It is claimed (although Dissident Voice has no proof of this!) that Doug and his partner grow the best garlic in Haliburton County. Read other articles by Douglas.