Guernica, revisited February 22, 2015 By Richard Vargas Guernica, revisited (Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53, 2014). (February 22, 2015) Richard Vargas links Picasso's masterpiece about the bombing of civilians in the Spanish Civil War to current events. the child is lying face down in the dirt, barefoot. his pants are torn, exposing the backside of his leg, the skin’s surface dull with a layer of fine dust. head turned to the side, half of the face is gone. hair is stiff, matted. he looks like a doll someone just threw away. the family gathers around their home where walls no longer stand and brick has been pulverized into grit and debris burying their loved ones, their belongings. a bed has been removed from the rubble; under an old sleeping bag are the bodies of an adult and two children. they look peaceful and asleep, huddled close together for warmth. but they are not sleeping. overhead, metallic raptors spread their wings with grace and ride the high desert winds with ease, their cyber-cameras survey the damage, send images half way around the globe where men in starched uniforms focus on their military-issue computer monitors, drink their morning coffee, take notes, and fill out reports. Picasso’s ghost walks among the carnage, weeping. there is no art here. Reprinted with the author’s permission from Richard Vargas, Guernica, revisited (Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53, 2014). http://www.press53.com/bioRichardVargas.html http://labloga.blogspot.com/2014/03/interview-with-poet-and-publisher.html Richard Vargas resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico in 2010. He edits and publishes The Mas Tequila Review, a bi-annual poetry journal dedicated to "Poetry for the rest of us." http://www.richardvargaspoet.com/the-mas-tequila-review--where-to-buy--how-to-submit..html. -------------------------------------------------------------------- VIEW ONLINE: http://dev.portside.org/2015-02-22/guernica-revisited-0 SUBSCRIBE: http://portside.org/subscribe VISIT PORTSIDE.ORG: http://portside.org TWITTER: https://twitter.com/portsideorg FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor -------------------------------------------------------------------- Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. Submit via email: [log in to unmask] Submit via web: http://portside.org/submittous3 Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive ######################################################################## To unsubscribe, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(portsidetest,SIGNOFF);