Watching Spanish football

on TV in a bar

a new form of guttural expression

that language that explodes

I’d been at the minibar

the waiter says he doesn’t

remember

Guernica

and the lost mass graves

of the vanquished

including my ancestor

Rhondda miner

Jutland stoker

medal winner

hillside boxer

circus bear wrestler

Civil Warrior

fighting for democracy

with his hands

and hand tools

murdered in Bilboa prison

by guards retaliating

against the last impassioned

throw of his knuckles

I drink alone in a Malaga bar

recalling the bare bones

of this story I was told

when I was a boy

dreaming of another dream republic

a better tomorrow