A Judge Orders The Opening of Federico García Lorca's Grave
       

Leave the dead alone.
Federico is not with the other eighteen bodies that were dumped there.

Do not rewrite the myth.
Federico is not there because his poem about

the moon lifted him away long ago.
No poet leaves bones as clues to where they must go.

Do not open the earth.
Federico emerged long ago and hid among the black trees

to get away from the death song, the others slowly moving
to the sound of his footsteps, their bodies stripped of possessions,

though the murderers left a folded piece of paper in Federico's pants.
Do not unfold it and read what they did not read because Federico

took the words off the bloody page and ran.
He is gone and will not greet the shovels because your law is not

for tracing the saint. It is for entombing the written word,
but you will discover that poetry is not buried down there.

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Copyright © 2015 Ray Gonzalez All rights reserved
from Beautiful Wall
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