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"The Townspeople Watched
Them Take Alfonso."

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Now each of us is

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a witness stand--

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Vasenka watches us
watch four soldiers

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throw Alfonso Barabinski
on the sidewalk.

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We let them take him,
all of us cowards.

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What we don't say

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we carry in our suitcases,
our coatpockets, our nostrils.

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Across the street they
wash him with fire hoses.

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First he screams,

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then he stops.

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So much sunlight,

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a t-shirt falls off a clothes
line and an old man stops,

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picks it up, presses
it to his face.

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Neighbors just out
to watch him thrown

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on the sidewalk like
a vaudeville act--

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Ta Da.

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In so much sunlight--

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each of us

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is a witness stand--

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They take Alfonso

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and no one stands up.

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Our silence stands up for us.

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