Isabelita and the Bone

Jorge Rafael Videla (2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013)

 

 

Jorge is anything but fat,

but Isabel has

no care for

the English playwright’s warning.

Out of the office window

neither looks at the square.

One day, all too soon,

The Mothers will perform

a sidewalk ballet

on the Plaza del Mayo.

Perhaps the General

is not ambitious

merely decorated and devout

like many of his peers.

Whose scheme will it be,

to make falling angels

out of writers, artists, playwrights

and those with other ideas?

It is a long way,

for a soldier boy,

from Mercedes

to the Pink House.

Thousands will disappear,

babies born to mothers

under sentence of death

will know strangers

as their parents.

As Isabelita should have known,

the bone is hard.

Reviews

[Casey Truax]

I think you have met the challenge here. A lot of poets who try to tackle this kind of sensitive, historical topic end up sounding trite or even distasteful.

[Roland Petrov]

Excellent poem tackling the aftermath of the deposing of Isabelle Peron. You tackle historical events so well in poetry. If I ever wear a hat, I'll take it off to you!