BERNARDO ATXAGA

Bernardo, brother poet
accept me
like Joseph
as a long lost brother.


My mother's family
named Mendes expelled
from Toledo
by burning flames
of the Inquisition
now citizenship
has been offered to us
after all these years,
they were physicians
poets and musicians
there is hardly
a Spaniard without
Jewish blood
in every position
whether Juan de la Cruz
or St. Teresa of Avila
even Franco knew it,
now we are again
successful in all we do
even out of persecution
God even as Jesus Himself
who as a Jew blesses the Jew.