Unsung Heroes -- Part I (excerpt) (standard:poetry, 946 words) [1/2] show all parts
Author: Victor D. Lopez	Updated: Jun 18 2013	Views/Reads: 2944/1936	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
In a search for heroes that inspire and help us in our personal quest to become more than we are, we often turn our sights to far-off real and mythical men and women that fit the archetype. Yet true heroes often abound much closer to home if we only take

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And were sentenced to be shot as a traitor at La Plaza de María Pita. 

But the Republic had friends, even among the officers of the fascist
forces, 

And one of them opened your cell door on the eve of your execution. 

You had contracted tuberculosis by then, yet, according to grandmother,
you 

Managed to swim miles across the bay in a moonless night, to safety in
the home of 

Another patriot who risked his life and the lives of his family to hide
you in 

His cellar and made a trip of many miles on foot to find your wife. 

He found your home and told your wife of your unexpected reprieve, 

And asked her to send some clothing and some shoes to replace your dirty
rags. 

You eldest daughter, Maria, insisted in accompanying the stranger back
on foot, taking 

Clothing and what provisions she could quickly gather and carry to you. 

From time to time you accepted the hospitality of an overnight stay 

In the attic or hay loft of a Republican sympathizer as these were not
hard to 

Find in the fiercely independent Galicia under the yoke of one of its
own. 

But mostly you lived in the woods, with active guerrillas for years. 

You lived with all the comforts of a hunted animal with others who would
not yield, 

Whose greatest crime consisted of being on the wrong side of a lost
cause. 

I hope it brought you some comfort to know you were on the right side of
history. 

It brought none to your wife and none to your youngest children. 

As you paid your long penance for your conscience, once a month or so,
after some 

Time passed, you visited your wife and children. You were introduced to
the little ones 

As an uncle from afar. They did not know the bearded wild man who paid
these visits 

In the middle of the night and left wearing dad's old, clean clothes. 

The older ones, Maria, Josefa, Juan and Toñita, all in their teens, told
the little ones 

That their “uncle” brought news of their dad. The younger children,
still wearing the 

Frayed cloaks of their innocence, accepted this, not questioning why he
stayed in 

Mom's room all night and was gone before they awoke the next morning. 

Your grief at playing the part of a stranger in your own home, of not
embracing your 

Children on whom you doted, one and all, for their protection and yours,
as there were 

No shortage of fascists who tried to ply them with pastries and candy, 

Seeking to use their innocence as a weapon against you. 

Your parents were relatively wealthy business owners who farmed the sea
but 

Disowned you—perhaps for your politics, perhaps for choosing to emigrate
and 

Refusing to join the family business, or perhaps for marrying for love
in New York City 

A hard working girl beneath your social station in their eyes. 

You lived just long enough to see Spain delivered from war, 

Though not freed of its chains. 

You were spared the war's aftermath. 

Your wife and children were not. 

No books record your name. Most of those who knew you are dead. 

Yet flowers have long perpetually appeared on your simple above-ground
burial site in Sada that holds your ashes, and those of your eldest 
son, Juan, and second-Eldest daughter, Toñita, who died much younger 
than even you. 

Your wife has joined you there, in a place where 

Honor, goodness, decency, principle and a pure, 

Broken heart, 

Now rest in peace. 

From Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems (C) 2011 Victor D. López. The
book is available for the Kindle and in paperback at Amazon.com. My 
selected readings from Of Pain and Ecstasy, including a lengthy excerpt 
from the full version of this poem, are available free of charge as 
YouTube audio files at 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGA9jqMarpGQdW3Zj6X1CZw


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