Paulo

He was born on the fourth of December
in nineteen twenty
he was brought into the world with dynamite
blessed Saint Barbara.

He became a revolutionary
when thirty-four arrived.
He assaulted a barracks in Grado,
went to the mountains and they caught him.

Pasionaria went to jail
and the guard gave her the keys.
She opened cells and locks
and sent everyone out into the street.

In the Fifth Regiment
by the Los Franceses Bridge
he faced the bullets
and the war ended at home.

Bullfighter of the Third
in the María Luisa well
elbow to elbow without looking
at death that doesn't warn.

They took him to Oviedo
during the February strike.
His whole body a wound
from the beatings he received.

His lungs destroyed
and age retired him.
In the afternoons he walks slowly
from the party to the union.

Loser in a hundred thousand battles
he never knew of failure
until he saw how his blood
got tangled in the horse.

They found him in bed
as dawn broke
writing in his notebook
what became his own obituary.

At his feet piled up
the whole century lay before him
the newspapers shouted: