In the hour before dawn
They put you on their stage
In the hour before dawn
Near the Fountain of Tears
In the hour before dawn
Beside a lame schoolteacher
Dióscoro Galindo González
In the hour before dawn
And two matadors
In the hour before dawn
At your last corrida
In the hour before dawn
Because you wore a bow tie
In the hour before dawn
Because you were queer
In the hour before dawn
Because your poems were louder
Than the click of rifles
In the hour before dawn
Ah Federico
Man-child and maricón
In the hour before dawn
In the hour before dawn
By the ravine of Alfacar
With triggers bent by fingers
In the hour before dawn
Of men who could not read
In the hour before dawn
Your plenitude of death
In the hour before dawn
Did they hear your voice
In the hour before dawn
Soaring above the vega
In the hour before dawn
Like a bird of Andalusia
Beating back the darkness
In the hour before dawn
With light-tipped wings
This poem was inspired by Federico García Lorca’s 1934 poem, “Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías.”
