Mario
Say it with me
You say Mar, I’ll say eee, you say o
MAR---EEE—O
MAR---EEE—O
MAR---EEE—O
His father would later say he was named after Mario Trembley
A hall of fame centre who played for the Montreal Canadiens
So it was of little surprise when at the age of five
Mario Lemieux, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up said,
Je veux etre un canadien
I want to be a Canadian…a slip of the tongue, a faux pas
He wanted to be l’habitant, to play with his idol guy lafleur
To have the crowd at the forum scream Mario,
At the age of 15, he truly began his dream
Being drafted with high expectations into the QJHL
and three years later be drafted 1st overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL
But it wasn’t until the age of 21
the year 1987 he would truly achieve his magnificence
It was the Canada cup and his coach would later say that there was an unspoken promise made among the other players that during that tournament Mario would grow into a man,
They would show the young boy from Montreal what it took to be a super star, a hall of fame centre who would later beat cancer and a heart condition called atrial fibrillation
He would go on to win gold in the Oylmpics and two Stanley cups but attributed it all to his experience playing with gretzky, messier and coffey during the Canada cup in 1987
1987
In Toronto a young boy was born to an Islamic family
A boy who would sing as a dolphin if only we’d listen
A boy who’s spent over 1700 days—five times the stay of Mr. Arar
In a five by five cell
A boy who sings named Omar
He sings in an opera of the damned called Guatanemo since the age of 15
Where exhaustion is the breech birth twin of hope
Where the light through the open door is a noose of unanswerable questions
And he sings in a room so distant from his Canada that its politicians, press and his grade school friends have forgotten him
In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade that got him imprisoned in the first place.
Omar is the only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association and Amnesty International.
His name is Omar
a boy who sings poems and song that have been going on six years
a boy who wears cigarette burns like freckles
lash indents like stretch marks
and a boy who’s shaved head reminds him of the scars they’ve given
when he strokes his scalp for solace
Omar
a boy who sings in a room without paper and pen
Who flattens out Styrofoam cups and using his finger nails
Carves poems and song that can be slipped to the other prisoners
To read before the darkness comes
He sings with a hammer tongue and Styrofoam cup like a roadside preacher collecting alms without an audience, putting his destiny in providence
With the preciousness of a child born an orphan but raised by ten million families
Why is it in the age of terrorism when our children should be life jackets we use them like kindling
He is tear drops skating on the ephemera
He is our piss stained flag
The vomit on our chin
A reminder that our reserve system was the inspiration for apartide
Mario, Omar, why has a single letter left us blind
Why is it we can’t take the I out of the situation
And change hockey players into human beings
Realize that children are never born weapons
But most of us shed more salt wounds the day a Gretzky or Mario dies
Then break the swet needed to shake this young boy from a seizure of solitude
So for now, I’ll just ask you all to say his name
Omar
Like his name is a mountain spring on an island in the ocean
Omar
Like we mean the unspoken promise that we’re all created equal
Omar
Like he was the amen of our convictions
Omar
