Goya from The Disasters of War
Goya
Of course not!
Of course no one that ever cracked open a head
has seen a symphony pour out.
No executioner has seen the flow of an amber fireside
with its intimate and tangling caresses
drain from the split skulls of lovers
nor have soldiers who shoot dark holes
seen rafts of memories spilling,
carrying the children, the birthdays, the orchards,
the dances.
When they shot the poet, Lorca,
the bullets sailed in a universe,
yet when the blood spurted it was only blood
to them.
