Forche

The choice of word hands at the end of the section of The Country between Us, by Carolyn Forche was interesting to me.  The last line in the poem reads, "Tenderness is in the hands." What a true statement.  The government held the power of life and death in their hands and did not seem to show much tenderness.  Both poems depict graphic images of human cruelty and serious human rights violations.  The government of El Salvador had the power in their hands to choose tenderness or brutality.  The word hand is also in the poem The Colonel.  He is holding a human ear,"He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces,..."(3725) The colonel does not use his hands for tenderness nor does he use them tenderly. He shakes the ear in their face and he has also ordered to have the ears cut off of human beings.