The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye

I watched you read that page in the history text book.

I watched as your eyes glazed over,

and I know that if I ask, you'll say you didn't get it.

Then you'll tell me it's not important, that you don't need it.

Then when I try to tell you why it is important I get cut off--

"you're good at history, you get it."

I don't get it. 

I forget names, dates and treaties just like you,

but I care.

These paragraphs are the only thing that remind us of the pain in our world.

These paragraphs are our only source of perspective.

So you don't remember the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Well what about the thousands of people that thought maybe it could bring peace?

You don't know José Martí?

What about those who were brought to revolution by his poetry?

The hundreds of battles, the tiny shifts in borders, the changes in regimes,

it will all come down to you guessing right on a multiple choice test.

Now think of what our world is stricken with.

Will OCCUPY ever be a small paragraph someone will forget?

Will Obama's policies be forgotten as he is diminished to "the black president."

So please don't tell me that I "Get it."

I don't get it.

I forget names, dates and treaties just like you,

but I care.

I try because I will never know the pain of losing a friend in Vietnam.

I try because I will never know the feel of a whip on my back.

I try because I will never know what it's like to be denied rights.

I try because the fighting, the war, the death has all been in my name.

It has all been done for the movement of history.

It has all been done to earn a paragraph in that text book.

So maybe, you could try taking notes.