Marxism and Art: Literature: Otto Rene Castillo

Apolitical Intellectuals

One day

the apolitical

intellectuals

of my country

will be interrogated

by the simplest

of our people.

They will be asked

what they did

when their nation died out

slowly,

like a sweet fire

small and alone.

No one will ask them

about their dress,

their long siestas

after lunch,

no one will want to know

about their sterile combats

with "the idea

of the nothing"

no one will care about

their higher financial learning.

They won't be questioned

on Greek mythology,

or regarding their self-disgust

when someone within them

begins to die

the coward's death.

They'll be asked nothing

about their absurd

justifications,

born in the shadow

of the total lie.

On that day

the simple men will come.

Those who had no place

in the books and poems

of the apolitical intellectuals,

but daily delivered

their bread and milk,

their tortillas and eggs,

those who drove their cars,

who cared for their dogs and gardens

and worked for them,

and they'll ask:

"What did you do when the poor

suffered, when tenderness

and life

burned out of them?"

Apolitical intellectuals

of my sweet country,

you will not be able to answer.

A vulture of silence

will eat your gut.

Your own misery

will pick at your soul.

And you will be mute in your shame.

--Otto Rene Castillo