Why is it that I only hear
About the great men amongst us
upon the day
of their slaughter.
Beings who actually
Seemed to understand what it meant
To be
God damned human.
To talk about them
In the past tense
Is pain enough
I don’t need metaphor.
I am angry today
Because murder has stolen
From our mist another
Diamond soul.
Our world seems to spin
On an axis of pain
Some, try to see further
Than the circumference
beyond the difference
of our scattered ways
why are they repeatedly stolen from the world
add another name to list
Facundo Cabral
Juliano Mer Khamis
John Lennon
Martin Luther King
Ghandi
A list that seems to stretch back
to the beginning
of time
a list that reaches out towards tomorrow
As if death needs the angels for his own arsenal
The streets of Argentina tear
For the troubadour who
Sang for the soul
and is now
abruptly still.
The tongue can be silenced
But the song can not
Be murdered.
Today I also feel as if
I’m not from here of there
Or from anywhere.
© Joshua Baumgarten
Final farewell for Argentine folk singer Cabral
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Joshua Baumgarten is an ex-pat New Yorker living in Holland. He organises the Irrational Library evenings - nights of poetry, rock n roll and casual chaos, and performs as a Standup Spoken Word artist.
He says: "Sometimes it is hard to get ones head around the large scale and it is only when it is broken down to the one, the individual do we or at least I feel pulsed. So was it when I heard about the murder of Facundo Cabral. Someone I had never heard of before, but after researching the life of the man and listening the songs and the laughter and cheer from the audience, I realized once again the world has devoured another..."saintly" soul. With no religious overtones."
