I have long known
 there is nothing as savage
 as the human animal

 When I hear
 of the holocaust
 attrocities
 my soul sickens.
 I walked out of
 "The porter of the night"
 fleeing, what she could not.
 

 When I hear of the Gulag
 years of terrible plight
 for millions of people
 I sigh in relief
 that it is over now
 and surely
 things cannot be
 as bad as that
 again.

 When the Tutsies and Hutus
 are on the news
 I cringe at the blood
 as I watch them tear
 the live fabric
 of their
 tightly inwoven life ,
 and turn philosophic,
 expecting
 that sophisticated
 by civilization
 they will soon see the light.

 On and on,
 and to shorten the list
 I come to the prisons in Turkey
 Highlighted in blinding truth
 on our local TVs
 currently.
 The torture, the pains
 the inventiveness of man
 to turn a fellow creature
 to a piece of meat,
 a laboratory specimen
 screaming,
 like a caught mouse.

 I will enumerate:
 hanging upside down
 for days,
 freezing water,
 electric leads
 on the genitals
 and electroshocks,
 the chinese torture
 of the drop of water,
 beating the soles
 until blood runs
 and putting salt on the wounds
 (it is called phalanx,
 the greeks have a word for it)
 psychotropic drugs,
 that generate fear,
 and more, more, more.

 When they caught
 the rebel leader of millions,
 a Kurd terrorist for the
 Turkish status quo
 there was a doctor on the team.
 Could well be one of those doctors
 that bandaged the feet
 of the men in the picture
 so they could be beaten up again
 on the next day.

 Savage science has advanced in leaps
 and it has a lot of priests.
 Must it be associated
 with the Pax Americana?
 

 ****************
 for those who have followed the news, Ocalan
 labeled a terrorist, ( when similar leaders
 of Kosovo are invited to a meeting of negotiations)
 was cornered like a fox in a foxhunt, and handed over
 to the turkish secret service.
 In this saga, the governement of Greece played a crucial
 Judas role, which has brought a political
 crisis here in Greece.
 Xenios Zeus is still very much alive in this country,
 and handing over a supplicant is a national shame
 that will leave a permanent scar.
 Of course our reaction has been very great because we
 know at first hand about the tortures
 that go on in our neighbor's prisons ( documented by the US
 State Department reports on human rights).
 We have a lot of former interns of turkish prisons living
 here, and a lot of turk citizens of greek origin who have
 first hand knowledge of the prisons.