So now we know the reckoning
from the last day in November
of nineteen sixty-four accounts
for one hundred and fifty-two dollars
plus ninety cents
paid for the Medical Sector
with sixty wounded
and another three thousand, one hundred
and eighty-one was paid
to Heroes and Martyrs
and that this was signed for
by a certain Juan Paula Baez
in Miami, Florida, who certified
that the figures were correct
with a balance in the books
at month’s end
amounting to forty-three thousand,
one hundred and ninety-five
dollars and fourteen cents
but who was wounded
and why
or what made a hero a hero before
being martyred
remains a matter of speculation,
as does the reason Marina
Vardones Vivancos, wife of
Lauro Blanco, received a hundred
and sixty-five dollars, but knowing
the check number to have been
17165 might be somewhere to start
for anyone determined
to find the truth at all costs.
David Chorlton