By Bob Boldt
[Editor’s Note: The author’s short story “Elmer” is about Eddie Balchowsky. It appeared here on November 30, 2015.]
In Spain he lost his arm to the Fascist sniper’s aim,
shattered in a red arterial cascade in the warm Andalucían blue.
“Something for the pain, comrade.”
In 1937 the Lincoln Brigade fought Franco.
In the middle was 21-year-old Eddie.
And Paul Robeson, and Guernica.
And morphine.
He knew exactly how much Republican blood
Franco’s guns had used to paint the market stones.
Only the shell-shocked, crumbling street
remembered the names of the lads of the Brigade,
Ecce homo:
Raymond Lee Peters, killed in action
George Aylain, killed in action
Sam Kaplan, killed in action:
names like blurred, torn posters flashing past a subway train window
is all that remains of all that spilled blood beneath the ancient Andalucían sky. All blown apart by an instant blue arc flash in the ozone-scented air. That all ended in blood, crushed bone, and despair.
Call yourself lucky if you don’t have to own it shattered
beneath train wheels on the North and Clyborn line.
A late payment finally come due on the roster of
the lads of the Lincoln Brigade. 1989.
Background, with a reflection: I wish I could present some of this in a podcast reminiscent of my favorite radio programs and introduce some featured people, stories, and songs in the sort of context they deserve. Some of these people I knew should not be forgotten. They still can teach us much.
My poetry teacher even suggested I do a chapbook of my poems about unsung revolutionaries. I have known many – and I myself have been one.
Anyway, here are a few videos from Youtube to elaborate on the poem:
The interviewer misspelled “Balchoswky” on the title page of the following video:
Peat Bog Soldier is a film Diane Weyerman did on Eddie:
Here is Jimmy Buffett’s tribute to a fictional Eddie:
And “Eddy’s Song” by Utah Phillips:
| Copyright © 2020 by Bob Boldt |
Bob, this posting, like so many of your other postings, provide so much more than a poem or a story. It and they inform and widen historical horizons with their biographies and accounts of other people's lives and of other times and places. Thank you so very much.
ReplyDeleteMy motto is "Never forget!"
DeleteAnother excellent poem into the world of chaos--something I feel we are stumbling into at a faster and faster rate everyday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bob, for sharing this piece.