To Yanira

Marilyn Buck

1988

Yanira young Salvadoran woman
your nation raped
tortured and ransomed
by men who proclaim to save you
from yourselves
        campesinos and workers
whose shattered dreams lay
crushed bodies in riverbeds
        tortured
by a lifetime of dueños and death squads

Yanira Salvadoran woman
you fled nightmares of death
footsteps tracked by death squads
cloaked by CIA sanctions

your dreams survived
rape and torture
to rage and resist
with courage

February 1988
Published in Concrete Garden, 1996