I DEMAND PUNISHMENT

CONTRIBUTED BY LUCIA FROM SPAIN

Here, they brought their guns filled
With powder and ordered callous extermination,

Here, they found a people singing, a people reunited
By necessity and love,

And the skinny girl fell with her flag,
And the once-smiling boy rolled wounded to his side
And the dazed town watched the dead fall

In fury and pain.

Then, there
Where the dead fell, murdered,
They lowered their flags and soaked them in blood

To raise them again in the face of their murderers.
For these our dead, I ask for punishment.

For those who spilled blood in our country,
I ask for punishment.

For the executioner who sent us murder,
I ask for punishment.

For those who prospered from our slaughter,
I ask for punishment.

For he who gave the order that caused our agony,
I ask for punishment.

For those that defended this crime,
I ask for punishment.

I don't want them to offer us
Their hands - soaked in our own
Blood: I want them punished.

I don't want them as ambassadors,
Or living comfortably in their homes:

I want to see them tried
here in this plaza, here in this place.

I demand punishment.


PABLO NERUDA