Devil's Door

south of San Salvador... there stands the 'Devi's Door'

twin lava peaks stand in silent silhouette against the sky

and those who by night 'disappear'... like as not, will end up here

and though no one speaks, they can't forget the ones that die

...

democratic vultures will soon be striping skin from bone

innocent or guilty... the verdict dies unknown

the hill folk curse the sunset, fear they'll be dragged from their homes

and wonder what in hell the gained from their election.

...

and there's Yankee shotguns in the death squads' hands

native blood soaking into the sand...

the rebels ain't backed by all the people;

at least they seem to know who to kill...

and it's torture by the handbook; CIA tricks...

leaving old women crying, clutching the crucifix...

waiting for their sons to come home...

and they know they never will.

...

and 'democratic vultures' continue to rape and pillage in 'freedom's name

spreading a diseased culture; nations just pawns in the game

intent on maintaining their stature; never shouldering the blame

always playing down ther evil connections...

...

south of San Salvador... there stands the 'Devil's Door'

twin lava peaks stand in silent testament....

against God and the sky.

    ...well... this one came bubbling up from the well of memory this Saturday morning... many years ago, on just such a morning; I read a journalistic account of the 'killing fields' in El Salvador; a description of a moonlit 'scape littered with the bones of the 'disappeared'... and shotgun casings... shotguns being outlawed; the only ones to carry them were the government backed 'death squads'... perhaps graduates of the 'School of the Americas' ? ... perhaps just local thugs trying to earn a few extra dollars for the maintenance of their own families? A rare piece of journalism, nonetheless; and it prompted me to write this song... (another ballad in 'A minor'; as my high school music teacher Peter Ford once told me: "All folk songs are in A minor..."... he was pulling my leg, of course, but just the same...my sister Mary Frances and her man Doug had a scary episode with the Salvadoran police/border guards on their travels through South america in my dad's old Dodge Polaris (the first car he ever bought 'new'; and oft referred to as 'the old hat'; a term he used to explain to me t's dearness to him when I was beginning to drive)... it was many years later that I read 'Shock Doctrine' (Naomi Klein) an d got any perspective on U.S. policy in Central and South America. And we;the 'complicit Canadians'? The current (and coming) colonial aggression towards First Nations tells us we are to be painted with the same brush... dipped in the blood (yet again) of our indigenous peoples. love to all(?), d.

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