Goya’s Execution of the Rebels on 3rd May, 1808

A Poem by Carmen

They’re ready to shoot
just one touch
just one motion
and his blood will spill

nothing more

The fear is his eyes won’t change his fate
He’s just one more man on the ground

The cries
the pleading
it will not aide what awaits him

Tomorrow morning the church will pray in his name
missionaries will weep
people will beg for his soul to enter another life

No one will ever know the pain that he felt
or the things he wanted done
No one will know what he meant when his hands were in the air and said

“you cannot take it”