BENJAMIN AT THE PYRANEES

With shaking knees
a philosopher
Walter Benjamin
escapes as far
from Nazi Germany
to the Pyrenees
with the threat
of a bet of benzedrine
as you decide
for suicide
not making it to a bar
for a whiskey
licorice or Turkish coffee
in Barcelona
remembering the auto-da-fes
hearing the Basque sky bird
who whispers to me
in seven last words
"All I want is to be free."