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John F McCullagh Aug 2018
El ejército se había rebelado y la República estaba en peligro,
Pero éramos solo una pequeña ciudad, ¿qué teníamos que ver con esto?
Mi padre, Manuel Robles, era un sindicalista.
Algunos lo llamaron comunista; solo ahora lo entiendo

El ejército tenía una lista de hombres cuya lealtad era sospechosa
Y cuando estalló la guerra civil vinieron por ellos directamente.
Lo llevaron a él, y a otros, y los alinearon contra una pared.
Fue entonces cuando oí la descarga y vi a mi padre caerse.

Verificaron su trabajo, no puedo olvidar la cara
Del oficial que usó su pistola para dar el golpe de gracia.
Apilaron los cadáveres en su camión y, riendo, se alejaron.
Todos fueron enterrados en una fosa común para esperar el día del Juicio.

Miré con mudo horror el suelo empapado de sangre y sediento
y en las marcas de viruela en esa pared causadas por algunas rondas malgastadas.
No hubo juez, ni jurado, ni veredicto, ni decreto.
Mataron a una docena de hombres desarmados; esa fue su victoria

Asesinaron a mi querido padre sin pensarlo dos veces.
No iría tan fácilmente; hay otros, también, que lucharon.
Ahora Franco tiene mi país y he tenido que huir de España.
Mi corazón está con los huesos de mi Padre. Continúo su nombre.
El día en que los fascistas llegaron a la ciudad

El ejército se había rebelado y la República estaba en peligro,
Pero éramos solo una pequeña ciudad, ¿qué teníamos que ver con esto?
Mi padre, Manuel Robles, era un sindicalista.
Algunos lo llamaron comunista; solo ahora lo entiendo

El ejército tenía una lista de hombres cuya lealtad era sospechosa
Y cuando estalló la guerra civil vinieron por ellos directamente.
Lo llevaron a él, y a otros, y los alinearon contra una pared.
Fue entonces cuando oí la descarga y vi a mi padre caerse.

Verificaron su trabajo, no puedo olvidar la cara
Del oficial que usó su pistola para dar el golpe de gracia.
Apilaron los cadáveres en su camión y, riendo, se alejaron.
Todos fueron enterrados en una fosa común para esperar el día del Juicio.

Miré con mudo horror el suelo empapado de sangre y sediento
y en las marcas de viruela en esa pared causadas por algunas rondas malgastadas.
No hubo juez, ni jurado, ni veredicto, ni decreto.
Mataron a una docena de hombres desarmados; esa fue su victoria

Asesinaron a mi querido padre sin pensarlo dos veces.
No iría tan fácilmente; hay otros, también, que lucharon.
Ahora Franco tiene mi país y he tenido que huir de España.
Mi corazón está con los huesos de mi Padre. Continúo su nombre.
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
The army had revolted and the Republic was at risk,
But we were just a small town- what had we to do with this?
My father, Manuel Robles, was a labor Union man.
Some called him a Communist; only now I understand.

The army had a list of men whose loyalty was suspect
And when the civil war broke out they came for them direct.
They took him, and some others, and lined them up against a wall.
It was then I heard the volley and I watched my Father fall.

They checked upon their handiwork, I cannot forget the face
Of the officer who used his pistol to give  the coup de grace.
The piled the corpses on their truck and, laughing, drove away.
All were  buried in a common grave to wait the Judgement day.

I stared in speechless horror at the blood soaked, thirsty ground
and at the pock marks in that wall caused by some misspent rounds.
There was no judge, no jury, no verdict, nor decree.
They killed a dozen unarmed men ; that was their victory

They slaughtered my dear padre without a second thought.
I would not go so easily; there are others, too, who fought.
Now Franco has my country and I’ve had to flee from Spain.
My heart is with my Father’s bones. I carry on his name.
July 19, 1936 A young teen watches in horror as Franco's men ****** his Father and  others for their Communist sympathies
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
We dressed up in our bulky suits
to stroll across the Luna mare.
Old friend of Earth is this rocky orb
both captives of one nearby star.

We walk together glove in glove
until our base is out of view.
We marvel at the sign of earth;
her greens, her browns, her ocean Blues.

Our ancestors in times gone by
On strolls like this beneath Earth’s sky
Could hold each other’s hands and then
Kiss each other on the sly.

On Luna’s vast and dusty plain
Our helmets touch but it’s not the same.
We long to kiss and to embrace-
So we turn and hurry back to base.
Then, with kisses deep and slow
You’re no longer Terra incognito.
Lovers on Moon base nine
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
Don't lay me to rest in a burial plot
to molder alone and be forgot.
I think that I would rather be
fresh compost for a growing tree.
As a tree let me grow both tall and thin
(two things that I have never been)
There let me grow both tall and proud
and raise my limbs to worship God
Then children, rest beneath the shade of that tree
Take shelter there in my leafy bough.
Hear my voice in the rustling wind.
I'm with you. I have always been.
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
It is dangerous for a poet who is lyrically inclined
To even think a word like orange should be included in a rhyme.
Although it’s fruit is succulent and it’s juice is sweet,
The word is something of a loner, one whose
Rhyme you’ll never meet.
It is borrowed from the Sanskrit whose lands gave us the fruit  
Any cunning linguist will confirm I speak the truth.
Orange  from the Sanskrit word  Naranga.
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
She was quite the looker, her eyes a cold blue steel.
Her legs went on forever and that’s just part of her appeal.
He met her in a magazine, then in a glossy print.
He painted her, from Memory, on his plane and off they went.
She flew with him into battle. She was his lucky charm.
17 bombing missions they came thru without harm.
They flew over ******’s Germany way up high and cold.
They faced fearful odds against the chance of growing old.
Then, when the war was over and her boys went home
The wings of war were mothballed; decades she spent alone.


The years of wind, sun and rain faded the old girl.
By the time I finally found her she was not long for this world.
I looked at my Grandpa’s photo of the bomber he once flew.
Despite the faded colors I was certain it was you.
The owners of the junkyard looked with favor on my quest
As I set out to battle the years of grime and rust.
Then I set out my palette to restore each shade and hue
I cannot make grandfather young but I can restore her to you
Her  legs are lithe and beautiful just as I ‘d been told
her eyes a cold blue steel,and her hair a platinum gold.
A grandson of a World War II bomber pilot finds and restores his
grandfather's plane
John F McCullagh Aug 2018
It’s no one’s idea of paradise, this land of dust and wind.
Yet this is where God spoke to man and he  first conceived of sin.
The land is dry and stubborn, like the people of the Lord.
Even now I see them turning their plowshares into swords.
Ever since the Maccabees revolted against Rome
(Rome did not understand those Jews who worshiped God alone.)
This land of Dust and wind has known no peace
The men wield blades and staves.
In such a place the only peace Is the quiet of the grave.
How I long to comfort them, but where would I begin?
The people here have lost their way and lost their sense of sin.
The dispossessed now live in camps and old hatreds here still simmer.
It’s hard to parse the difference between the righteous and the sinners.
The Land of Israel with its Jewish population living as an armed camps side by side with the dispossessed Palestinians
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