-
-
- On the night of the executions of
- the third of May
- the sky was hazy
-
- And blood sucked the color from the sun
- and the evening sky
- And blood caked cobblestones and
- stiffened tunics
- and in blood was a cry
- that life is real and can be spilt an
- can be built
- and that men know where they're at
- when they are dying
-
- On the night of the executions
- of the third of May
- five soldiers at the encampment by
- the gate of Lucientes
- were drunk enough not to need
- further divertment
- and so they did not join the executions
-
- and in the square the winekeep,
- Thoma
- unstrung his apron to run looking
- for the dogface general
- with the big mustaccios
- who so often drank his wine
- hoping to pull strings and
- avert disaster
-
- On the night of the executions
- of the third of May
- the sky
- never wholly darkened, never
- wholly light
- was merciless
-
- And the soldiers with the guns
- shooting at potato sacks
- cut down lives like they were cleaning vermin
- from the face of the earth;
- they did not see the bodies,
- not yet dead,
- butchered without honor, in heaps --
- or viewed them with satisfaction.
- The man in the baggy brown pants
- groveling, before the tips of their guns,
- called forth a special vindictiveness,
- because he seemed to want his life so.
-
- On the night of the executions
- of the third of May
- there were many
- who were not ready to die.
-
- On the morning after
- the executions
- of the third of May
- the bodies were viewed as the results of
- periodic excess.
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