Poem
Problems

     This is an excerpt from a poem by Subcomandante Marcos,
apparently written in 1987 when he was a second captain of
infantry with the EZLN:

This matter of the homeland
is a difficult thing to explain.

But it is even more difficult to understand
this matter of love for the homeland.

For example,
they taught us that love of our country is,
for example,
   saluting the flag
   standing when listening to the national anthem
   getting discreetly drunk when the national soccer team
loses
   a few etceteras that change very little from one
presidential term to the next.

And for example,
they did not teach us that
love for the homeland
can be.
for example,
whistling like a person walking off into the distance,
but,
behind that hill the homeland also exists
and no one sees us
and we retreat
(because one always retreats when no one sees you)
and we tells it
(our country),
for example,
everything we hate about it
and everything we love
and it is always better to say it,
for example,
while fighting and smiling.