Inner Mapuche
Mi Abuela and her four children including mi Papa (seated far left)
Leopoldo lives in Washington
By Leopoldo Seguel
I am tired of educating white people
But I am white and that’s part of the job
For inside I feel Mapuche spirit
Mapuche, who were never defeated by the Incas or Spaniards
Mapuche still fighting the occupiers of their land
I am a soldier
Who asks, before battle
What am I fighting for,
The causes of war, the futility of war
The unnecessary suffering of war
I am a soldier who spends time
In poems, great tales, songs of love
Portraits of people I love
Landscapes I love
For then my heart will soften
I dream at night of looking Mapuche
So you see all of me
So I see all of me in your eyes
See my Andean heritage, mi Abuela
Her Mapuche brown skin, her dark eyes
I am tired of the war on color
The dominance of the white color caste
I am tired of the pretense
This is normal, this is just life
It will be with us forever
I am worn down by this needless suffering
Life is suffering enough
Just living and dying
Chances to care for one another
To learn from one another
I stay in Mapuche spirit
I remember mi Abuela
to live well and die well
While our mysterious planet whirls
Through deep space to somewhere good I hope