Unsung Heroes243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA8fJsGhauA
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIxhfEbk7nz
Although I stand on the shoulders of giants,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1sFhbhaZ9B
I fail to see much farther than the bridge of my nose.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu50EOHmhnm
The fault in mine. The shame is mine.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3CjSCXa7rl
For I am unworthy of you, my beloved dead.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpc4vRInxe
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5JxgaW1di
Emilio (Maternal Grandfather)243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEG90rKeH4o
Your crime was literacy,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpJ74sVciE
And the possession of a social conscience,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOCOz7KLex
That made you yearn to see your beloved Spain remain free,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuudvB6Ub8d
And prevented you from suffering fascists lightly.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAUT9rQbHxV
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoPGl6oMcrz
You did not bear arms,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0INzIaBNL
For you abhorred all violence,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4pb0EpxOK
You did not incite rebellion, though you243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2QIgltzc4
Rebelled against the foreign and domestic enemies of freedom.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFDJBaE8xYj
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBlS3WfQcCC
As best I can tell you were an idealist who,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlK7FgVmsNC
In a time of darkness,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ68rSQ2YOjI
Clung passionately to the belief,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1q6o4FTX9a
In the perfectibility of the human spirit.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuiOnBrY4E
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagq7dxBRMQ
You would not abide the lies the regional papers carried,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIVLBx8CEpf
And translated news from American and British newspapers,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAUMmdeqbw
About the gathering storm,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwKexsYMPQ
Sharing the truth freely with all who would listen.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO3WYFdYTVO
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuI0AcLyrS
You gave speeches, and wrote speeches delivered by others, in support of a doomed243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHhpbVxKtP
Republic collapsing under the weight of its own incompetence and corruption.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09BgQMyjxM
You were warned by friends of your imminent arrest and offered passage back to the U.S. or to243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxIhEJZMhgH
Buenos Aires where so many of your friends had already found refuge.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvTwBwdk0F
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZuPQeaYXOS
But they would not get your wife and nine children out,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHPB8L5JpMg
And you refused to leave them to their fate.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwq6Zbxyca
They came for you, as always, in the middle of the night,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzOVw7BHfE
These cowards with stern faces hiding behind machine guns.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZ0qcXSzRd
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7dQLgtxZM
They took you prisoner, not for the first time, to the Castillo de San Anton,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHdGrJk8Wh
A fortress by a most beautiful, tranquil bay,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmOyYZxl2H
Where they tore out your nails, one by one, and those their243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDh7PZSmUfO
Gentlest caresses while they asked you for names.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5XOWECUpX
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUd8Q8k0xG
You endured, God knows what there, for months,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyUOPqOkwo
And were sentenced to be shot as a traitor at La Plaza de María Pita.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejMPx6Sjol
But the Republic had friends, even among the officers of the fascist forces,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb9cc71EMQx
And one of them opened your cell door on the eve of your execution.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mKzG6m60i
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SKNmk4MAe
You had contracted tuberculosis by then, yet, according to grandmother, you243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrttUfbkNSz
Managed to swim miles across the bay in a moonless night, to safety in the home of243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvBTXec4IUy
Another patriot who risked his life and the lives of his family to hide you in243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFIJWtFWFTF
His root cellar and made a trip of many miles on foot to find your wife.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4y4y1Vcws
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu00GpyWTW0
He found your home and told your wife of your unexpected reprieve,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxSALk1AqD
And asked her to send some clothing and some shoes to replace your dirty rags.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LyGtJjO1G
You eldest daughter, Maria, insisted on accompanying the stranger back on foot, taking243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSwLX4lsPl
Clothing and what provisions she could quickly gather and carry to you.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs19L8J82TZ
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjibNhhP3xO
From time to time you accepted the hospitality of an overnight stay In the attic or hay loft of a243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrmE4YGzxVt
Republican sympathizer as these were not hard to243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFB4H4jpKS
Find in the fiercely independent Galicia under the yoke of one of its own.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYAfUNpH5d
But mostly you lived in the woods, with active guerrillas for years.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVmLYbkT4y9
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTGLWOSv95
You lived with all the comforts of a hunted animal with others who would not yield,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2PKGb2XgBn
Your only crime consisted of being on the wrong side of a lost cause.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAnbpFxbiqV
I hope it brought you some comfort to know you were on the right side of history.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlH8bkPZSie
It brought none to your wife and none to your youngest children.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBNN9Om8Sx
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2D6Febb57C
As you paid the long penance for your conscience, once a month or so, after some243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLncvQ6rRL
Time passed, you visited your wife and children. You were introduced to the little ones243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65Y0C7moXa
As an uncle from afar. They did not know the bearded wild man who paid these visits243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllxSbRXVOE
In the middle of the night and left wearing dad’s old, clean clothes.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJYjHrXWjf
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdGhuWZy8L
The older ones, Maria, Josefa, Juan and Toñita, all in their teens, told the little ones243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkCOp2EJtB
That their “uncle” brought news of their dad. The younger children, still wearing the243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0b2kBK8Z2f
Frayed cloaks of their innocence, accepted this, not questioning why he stayed in243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMJ5H4CUKQ
Mom’s room all night and was gone before they awoke the next morning.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkeoNwfBXRB
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUUDpFySSwb
Your grief at playing the part of a stranger in your own home, of not embracing your243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQgPxeUNfil
Children on whom you doted, one and all, for their protection and yours, as there were243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLlpg1Vnsg
No shortage of fascists who tried to ply them with pastries and candy,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJik76vtrF
Seeking to use their innocence as a weapon against you.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9q5xH2sOOg
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVkLZ3ohOU
Your parents were relatively wealthy business owners who farmed the sea but243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJzrDs92Gju
Disowned you—perhaps for your politics, perhaps for choosing to emigrate and243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5BL5TBIF2
Refusing to join the family business, or perhaps for marrying for love in New York City243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf0ryD28vNi
A hard working girl beneath your social station in their eyes.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5KcQ7CmIU
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdATK07wr8
You lived just long enough to see Spain delivered from war,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBYbkJVoOXT
Though not freed of her chains.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡietByFeeLa
You were spared the war’s aftermath.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiVJpevCV8t
Your wife and children were not.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCsipKLw4L
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMKqRu3TbNH
No books record your name. Most of those who knew you are dead.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVPGqzIvn6
Yet flowers have long perpetually appeared on your simple above-ground burial site in243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOXbIZS6FtF
Sada that holds your ashes, and those of your eldest son, Juan, and second-243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWkXLt15aQ
Eldest daughter, Toñita, who died much younger than even you.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvfjdOoT3w
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeRELdAMWEJ
Your wife has joined you there, in a place where243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxIJayDGFhY
Honor, goodness, decency, principle and a pure,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6sEiMngGwV
Broken heart,243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3WoeDag2R3
Now rest in peace.243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuuyANn8Qae
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwaCszcJuE4
Author's Note: You can hear my reading of this poem free on Spotify at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AOXDwsNKke4AzCnr8gl3c?si=_OdzkNRoSaqlhYI3xxfpQg243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQ4Cqtgk34

From: Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems (Vol. 1)