CONCRETELY CELEBRATING THE QUINCENTENNIAL

Phillis Gershator

I

On the islands they're mixing concrete
for monuments and markers
to celebrate fourteen ninety two
when Columbus, sailing off the face of the map,
touched these shores and gave them new names
and proved at last—in the year of heresies,
recantations, lies and burnings at the stake—
the world is round, not flat

II

We appreciate
the science of it all
the accidents
the hand of fate
We celebrate Discovery
not the loose ends
unfurling in its wake
not greed
not power lust
not the flag with a cross
With mixed feelings
we approach the date

III

Progress is a mixed blessing
so let the concrete mixing begin!

A blind man's concrete lighthouse
rises on the shores of Hispaniola
A concrete K-mart in the Virgins
buries an Arawak village
Another concrete hotel
blocks the beach

Here, there, and everywhere
concrete for Columbus
for capitalists
for consumers
for caudillos
Concrete for the sake of concrete




Copyright © by Phillis Gershator