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Giannina Braschi

Giannina Braschi is an American poet who writes in Spanish, Spanglish, and English. She was born in San Juan on February 5, 1954, and is based in New York City. The Library of Congress calls her writing

Little Lead Soldiers

by Giannina Braschi (b. 1954)

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My tanks were filled with gasoline and wars. I was a lead soldier. I marched
against the smoke of the city. There were difficult moments and there were,
Hello! How are you? They were all worth the same. I had two pennies. I
could enter the city. But they closed the doors on me. I closed my soul on
them. They didn’t know what had happened. Did my soul pass by here?
Body, I said to you, how are you? I have been a lead soldier. The voice that
said it was not what it said. I almost swear by the road. But the segment,
the march loaded with clay, eyes of asphalt, hands of lime, legs of drill,
navels of cement, resounded, resounded, resounded—the anvils of the

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Question:

What poet refused to accept the National Medal of Arts in 1997 saying, "[Art] means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage."

Answer

Adrienne Rich. She indicated a belief that art was inconsistent with the "cynical politics" of the Clinton administration.

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