Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!

 
You sullen pig of a man
you force me into the mud
with your stinking ash-cart!
 
Brother!
–if we were rich
we’d stick our chests out
and hold our heads high!
 
It is dreams that have destroyed us.
 
There is no more pride
in horses or in rein holding.
We sit hunched together brooding
our fate.
 
Well–
all things turn bitter in the end
whether you choose the right or
the left way
and–
dreams are not a bad thing.
 
William Carlos Williams, USA (1883-1963)
 
William Carlos Williams “Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!” The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Eds. Ilan Stavans, Edna Acosta-Belen, Harold Augenbraum, Maria Herrera-Sobek, Rolando Hinojosa, and Gustavo Perez Firmat. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2011. 419. Print.
 
The cover artwork is by Michelangelo Pistoletto (L’arte è ancora libera, 1976-2013), courtesy Galleria Continua San Gimignano-Les Moulins- Beijng

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