mare nostrum ing

Mare Nostrum
Sunshine and riviera
Restaurants, sun beds and gelato
Topless and bikini,
Sunscreen and waterproof mascara.

Mare Nostrum
Boats, small boats, big boats
Packed with people with brown skin.
Who are they?
Immigrati is their label.
Greedy creatures that want to steal wealth.

Mare Nostrum
The Mediterranean diet, to live longer,
Olive oil, pasta, and fresh salad,
To keep the heart pumping a glass of vintage red wine.

Mare Nostrum
Giant hungry beast
That feeds on human flesh.
What’s on the menu makes no difference,
Young men, children, pregnant women.
The required ingredient:
Must be desperate, fleeing from chemical weapons,
Political oppression, civil war, and starvation

Mare Nostrum
Romans, ancient monuments.
Testimony of great civilizations;
Great history great architecture
Every century is dated, preserved in museums,
Expert archaeologists dig, dust, catalogue,
Search for the glorious past.

Mare Nostrum
News, what’s on the news hour?
No news its everyday news
Today a boat with seven hundred migrants drown,
Last week a boat with four hundred migrants drown,
New Year’s Eve a boat with five hundred migrants drown,
We do not have the exact figure,
Approximately last year three thousand migrants drown.

Mare Nostrum
Resorts, cosy guest houses and hotels.
Bookings are required.
Name, address and credit card number,
King- size beds are tucked with lavender scented bed linen.
Dining rooms set with silver polished cutlery and champagne glasses.
On coffee tables fresh cut flowers.
Smile for guests to arrive.
Mare Nostrum
Quiet, hush, keep quiet,
People are dying.
No names, no faces, no numbers, no graves,
No trace.
They vanish, they disappear.

Mare Nostrum
Talk, politicians talk.
Debate, debate, debate.
Help! European Union help.
Elections.
Vote for me.
I will keep you safe from barbaric invasion.

Mare Nostrum
Blame unscrupulous traffickers.
Let’s go after them.
The human traffickers are responsible.
Let’s have a naval blockade,
Point our missiles toward them.

Mare Nostrum
Got amnesia, no memory of yesterday.
Fascist propaganda, we export civilization.
The reality, we conquer, massacre, divide grab resources;
Today we export democracy.
The reality we use dictators.
When we do not need them
We bomb them and their whole country.
We make money selling obsolete weaponry.
We have drones, we experiment on the ground.
We create death, agony, displacement
Justified as collateral damage.

Mare Nostrum
Silence, only a vast blue sea.
Silence broken by the noise of crushing waves.
Silence, people keep silent.
No words
To honour the dead.