Haiti

When you are invited to climb the steps of the Jorge Amado Foundation House
To see from above the line of soldiers, almost all black
Beating the backs of black scoundrels
Of mulatto thieves
And others almost white
Treated as black
Just to show the almost black to others
(And they are almost all black)
And to the almost white poor like blacks
How blacks, poor and mulattos
And almost blacks almost black from being so poor are treated
And it doesn't matter if the eyes of the whole world may be momentarily turned to the square
Where the slaves were punished
And today a drumming, a drumming with the purity of uniformed schoolboys
From high school on parade day
And the epic grandeur of a people in formation
Attracts us, dazzles us and stimulates
It doesn't matter
Not the trace of the mansion, not the lens of the Fantastic TV show
Not Paul Simon's record
Nobody
Nobody is a citizen
If you go see the Pelourinho party
And if you don't go
Think of Haiti
Pray for Haiti

Haiti is here
Haiti is not here

And on TV if you see a panicked deputy
Poorly disguised
In front of any, but any really
Any any
Education plan
That seems easy
That seems easy and quick
And represents a threat to the democratization of primary education
And if that same deputy advocates for the adoption of the death penalty
And the venerable cardinal says he sees so much spirit in the fetus
And none in the criminal
And if, when running the usual old red light
Notice a man urinating on the corner of the street over a shiny garbage bag from Leblon
And when you hear the smiling silence of São Paulo in the face of the massacre

111 defenseless prisoners
But prisoners are almost all black
Or almost black
Or almost whites almost black from being so poor
And poor are like rotten
And everyone knows how blacks are treated
And when you take a walk in the Caribbean
And when you have sex without a condom
And present your intelligent participation in the blockade against Cuba
Think of Haiti
Pray for Haiti

Haiti is here
Haiti is not here