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JOHN ROSS

poem from WHOSE BONES
Mexico 1990 © John Ross
John Ross

JOHN ROSS: REBEL JOURNALIST
(1938 - 2011)

JOHN ROSS ~ published 10 chapbooks of poetry including
12 Songs of Love and Ecocide(1977)
The Daily Planet(1981)
Running Out of Coastlines (1983)
Whose Bones 1990)
Jazzmexico(Calaca de Pelón: 1996)
Against Amnesia(Calaca de Pelón: 2002)
Bomba(Calaca de Pelón: 2007)

John Ross' ten books iinclude Murdered By Capitalism – A Memoir of 150 Years of Life and Death on the U.S. Left (Upton Sinclair Award winner) and Rebellion from the Roots: Indian Uprising in Chiapas (American Book Award winner). His reporting appears in publications such as the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Nation,, and Counterpunch.
His most recent book is El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City.

Recent writings by John Ross:
08 August 2010 ~ Epic Hunger Strike in the Land of the Hungry
30 April 2010 : The U.S., Mexico, and the Drug War Scam
2003 to 2012: Dispatches ~John Ross

January 18,2011 ~ Rebel Journalist John Ross, the Master of Speaking Truth to Power, Is Dead John Nichols, The Nation

When John Ross was 18, he was a young member of the Beat Generation, reading his poetry in Greenwich Village bars with the great bass player Charles Mingus.

LOS MUERTOS

After they had waited on line

for nearly eight straight hours

to vote for the candidate of their choice,

The Dead were finally informed

that they were no longer inscribed

upon the precinct lists of the Republic.

But we have only come to exercise

our rights as responsible citizens

The Dead complained bitterly

for it seemed to them that the President

in the spirit of national unity

had called upon all the people

to cast their ballots

as is the democratic norm.

The official registrar

who was still quite alive

could only explain

the exclusion of the calacas

with platitudes about Morality.

Oh said The Dead and voted anyway.

But your votes are clearly illegal

winced the official Official,

they can't be counted in this election.

You have a point The Dead replied,

maybe they won't be counted now

but surely you will count them later.

© John Ross


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