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  Roseann Lloyd  
   
 
         
         

The Family of Frederico García Lorca Stands Against Exhumation Of His Remains

We'd like to leave him there
By the tree at the bend in the road, the approximate spot
(They're all in good company there)
Where Frederico García Lorca and his comrades were shot.

Behind the lone olivo, the approximate spot
Where the Fascists buried them, made a ditch their tomb
After their final paseo to that place where they were shot:
Lorca, the bullfighters, the teacher—the gravedigger too.

The Fascists buried them in a ditch, their tomb.
It's said we don't want to stir up history. That's infamy!
They say that we're homophobes, too.
This is defamation, just plain crazy!

It's said we don't want to stir up history. That's infamy!
What we want: we don't want a spectacle.
Exhumation? It adds nothing to history.
Imagine You Tube with Lorca's bones and skull.

We don't want a spectacle.
Do they want a relic, the bones of a saint?
Imagine You Tube with Lorca's skull.
The olivo, the ditch, the road—a sacred place.

Do they want a relic, the bones of a saint?
In the vega, swathed in its blue shimmer:
The olivo, the ditch, the road—it's a sacred place.
On blue and green tiles friends painted his verses

In the vega, swathed in its blue shimmer.
Lorca and his comrades are in good company there.
On blue and green tiles friends painted his verses
We want to leave them there.

found pantoum from The New Yorker, page 48, June 22, 2009, article by Jon Lee Anderson. In the vega swathed in its blue shimmer is a quote from Lorca himself.

         
         
         
 
   
     
 
 
       
  Copyright © 2011 Pemmican Press and the author/artist represented.