TWO KARIMOVS

I creamed off
the Internet
an article about the arrest of Karimov,
not the President but his nephew.
I haven’t decided what to do yet,
whether to mobilise the hue
and cry of a poetry cycle
as I did for another imprisoned Uzbek journalist,
anyway Karimov jumps to the top of my list,
though his uncle is cold and jagged as an icicle.

Human rights defenders in Uzbekistan have a helluva difficult stance.
Human writing does not stand much of a chance.
In that article there were three more names:
I am not playing word games,
I am a writer in freedom
OK in the UK.
The nerveshed Karimov is facing now
under Uzbek KGB interrogation
makes me ask how
torture is spreading among the nations.
‘The fish smells from the head’,
I’ve used that metaphor before
and I didn’t want to be led
to use it again, but there are many rotten fish
and many corrupt heads.
Karimov senior creams off
the cotton and gold revenues, has many palaces and a retinue.
His nephew Karimov who has been taken off
into custody far from being the residue
that his uncle may presume
is, as a journalist and human rights defender,
fighting for freedom of expression.
I ask you who is being more true,
who is the real offender?
If this poem can make any impression,
so be it: it is in solidarity with those who suffer
for their human rights. I’m sitting at a cafй:
at the moment this is the best I can offer.

21-22 September 2006

Richard McKane