sweat of brow

by Roberto Lavidez

bare walls

of roofless cottages

empty fields

where only weeds rattled

in the grand apocalypse

of races

neurochemical reactions

churn away

beneath

surface of awareness

why the world

seemed so bleak

frustrated by

urgings of restraint

lethal mix

of pseudo-sciences

and craniology

rumble at the gates of

rational and

moral judgment

bodies restless

and taut with anger

missionaries, historians,

abolitionists

vanguards of

imperialist expansion

spiritual, intellectual,

aesthetic

profoundly out of joint

like salmon

swimming furiously

upstream to their deaths

tragically ensnared

in a vicious system

a narrative of some

fearful  tale

of barbarity

ostensible punch lines

that triggered

laughter of gluttons

ecstatic at annihilation

of coastal tribes

wears immovable veil

which covers

greedy ambitions

a hybrid of

the most despicable

they earned their bread

by the sweat of

their brow

©robertolavidez2012