Por Roque Dalton // Poet // Incarcerated by El Salvador’s military dictatorship and then executed in 1975 by the People’s Revolutionary Army // Who wrongfully believed he was a spy for the CIA
This life’s so small & // Sweet as a strawberry
We watched the women play harp in // The hills of grass
Beautiful music // We stretched our ears to hear
The cloud whispered // Memories can’t be forgotten
How caterpillars weaved silk gloves on our hands
When sentenced to death // We wrote quickly on your napkin
Scared yes // But never scared of love
Police took us to jail // Threw tornadoes around our room
We tried to remember the shape of stars
& Just like that an // Earthquake collapsed the cell wall
Soft wind lifted us up // Like a kite // We were flying
We escaped to Cuba our // Stomach smaller than a tooth
The Cubans trained us for combat // To lead guerilla troops
We wanted bread for our gente so bad // We stole it
In El Salvador // The illiterate memorized our poetry
To hear them speak it // Threw a javelin through our chest
Before returning // We took sandpaper to edges of our bone
We had plastic surgery // Wind whistled through the wound
Gov couldn’t find us with the rebels // Clandestino
There were words // We couldn’t chew // For it would break our jaw
We couldn’t lose one another // We were all we had