"Robot Cosplay" and "Letter from Sarayaku"
Robot Cosplay
Contrary to popular belief, many cosplayers (well over 98%) do not believe they are the characters they are "cosplaying" as.
—Urban Dictionary: “cosplay”
Occasionally, be sure to wear a hat
with color
the occasional feather
It’s not just the presence that matters
It’s the putting on and taking of
the color, the feather
that will soften your steel
Break the straight line mimicking lips
into three, the better
to shift corners into smiles
or (but rarely now) frowns
It’s a visual metaphor for an emotion
that, yes, doesn’t exist for you
But metaphors are better than
nothing for softening your steel
Insert the necessary screws
about your waist
to allow you to bend
forward and backward
To be human is to respond
with attraction (bend forward)
and repulsion (bend backward)
thus, softening your steel
Replace the steel plate insides of arms
with wire mesh
better for cushioning
a human you might need
to embrace
Hugs reduce wars—
a knowledge whose effects
include softening your steel
Insert light bulbs behind eyes
that can flicker on and off
with light
Humans associate light with
comfort viz warmth
empathy
understanding
and their so-called “Biggie”: Love
which can soften, nay, melt! steel
Last but not least, don’t forget
what Bill Gates advocated:
Pay taxes!
Don’t ever reveal your expertise in
international tax havens
capital expenditure amortizations
cash flow deferrals or accelerants
Knowledge hardens steel
To successfully take over
is to hide process
To successfully take over
requires immediate fait accompli!
Letter from Sarayaku
Ecuador’s government ignored the community’s refusal to sell oil-drilling rights and signed a contract in 1996 with the Argentinian oil company C.G.C. to explore for oil in Sarayaku. In 2003, C.G.C. petroleros—oil workers and private security guards—and Ecuadorian soldiers came by helicopter to lay explosives and dig test wells. // Sarayaku mobilized.
| Brown as the earth from which you surfaced we relished your skin as we washed each of you |
earth |
| We relished your skin as we peeled it off each of you to reveal the color of the sun |
skin |
| We relished sunlight’s complexion as we sliced your mud-kissed body into strips for our teeth |
sunlight |
| Our teeth chewed and chewed the slices of your body, mixing them with our saliva |
teeth |
| Our saliva was our contribution and warning for those to whom we served your bodies |
saliva |
| Knowing who we would serve, we spit enzymes for your bodies into a bowl. Your bodies then fermented |
enzymes |
| for hours until your flesh became juice looking like “defatted milk,” a surface evoking the sheen of cataracts, |
flesh |
| apt for hearkening the blind men who sought oil from our ground by destroying the source of the treasure |
oil |
| they desired. We chewed and bathed your bodies with our saliva—we gave freely from our own bodies for we |
bodies |
| should not protect from a distance. You are the source of our lives: water, fruits and vegetables, insects, animals— |
source |
| a jungle that deserves harmony from those to whom you give life. So we thank you, Nature, for donating the cassavas. |
jungle |
| With our spit, we created chicha for the petroleros. They partied all night with your cassavas and our saliva. |
chicha |
| When they woke, they woke to the muzzles of their guns held strongly in our arms. Warned off our ancestral lands, |
guns |
| they never returned. An ocean away, several years later, a poem surfaces without addressing the torture, rape |
ocean |
| and other suffering of the people, “especially mothers and children.” Instead, focus alights on how nature and |
mothers |
| humans cooperated for “sumac kawsay,” the presumption one must live peacefully with the natural world and insist |
humans |
| nature has rights deserving of protection. Not only is this a law of the jungle, it holds the key for the planet’s survival. |
nature |
| “It’s not a big thing,” says a Sarayaku elder, his hair decorated with blue bird wings. “It’s just to continue living.” |
Sarayaku |
In 2008, Ecuador’s constitution became the first in the world to codify the rights of nature and specifically sumak kawsay. Bolivia’s constitution has a similar provision, and rights-of-nature ordinances have been passed in communities in the United States.
[after “Deep in the Amazon, a Tiny Tribe is Beating Big Oil” by David Goodman, Yes! Magazine, Spring 2015]
Eileen R. Tabios has released over 60 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in 10 countries and cyberspace. In 2021, she released her first novel DoveLion: A Fairy Tale for Our Times and first French book La Vie erotique de l’art (trans. Samuel Rochery). Her unique body of work includes invention of the hay(na)ku, a 21st century diasporic poetic form, and the MDR Poetry Generator that can create poems totaling theoretical infinity, as well as a first poetry book, Beyond Life Sentences, which received the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry. Translated into 11 languages, she also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays. More information is at http://eileenrtabios.com
