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I Wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me
by Gloria Mindock
Copyright © 2018
Gloria Mindock
Nixes Mate Books
Allston, MA
ISBN 978-0-9993971-9-0
Softbound, 48 pages,
$9.95
Review by Zvi A. Sesling
In her latest book of
poetry Gloria Mindock resurrects Francisco Franco, the one-time
brutal dictator of Spain. In previous works Mindock has provided
descriptions of how dictatorships swim in the blood of victims. In
I Wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me,
Mindock uses Franco’s obsessiveness with
a voice that shouts for an end to the cruelty of dictatorships
everywhere.
Here is “Dictator”
in which she tells readers about Franco and his ongoing need to
destroy people:
A dictator is not a
spectator.
A spectator is not a
dictator.
Why do you make everyone in
Spain listen?
Some will betray you,
rise-up.
You do not love!
You do not love!
Brutal Franco!
Brutal Franco!
You slob!
Messy in the heart. Kicking
it out of your chest.
Even your heart knows you
have secrets
cascading down into your
pants.
Throats are slit today,
bullets are fired, bombs dropped.
Plaza’s preserved as
killing fields.
Big man Franco leaves terror.
Too many Fathers are dead.
Never to hold their children
again.
Killing in Bejar today …
Fascist!
Randomly killing what suits
you.
Mindock is a
particularly fine poet whose many dark works awaken people to the
evil conduct of dictators-- which is often minimized in history and
in the media, until the brave come forth to reveal the excesses of
violence:
*In Les Milles a young
girl raped at the age of ten somehow survives and is rescued so
“One less surrounded by
dark colored roses,/a chill in the air and scars left on the face”
*”Big Killer Franco –
Men want to shoot you in the back.? Turn your head towards them
Franco./ Look them in the eye as they fire./But they don’t
fire./You say, execute them
and walk away./A grin on your face…/Customary.”
*”Franco murdered
memories./The dead converse with their screams”
*”A hat falls on the
ground boldly/hugging the blood”
And in the poem Orbit Mindock
describes the aftermath of a bomb perfectly placed:
One bomb lunges
Chars the sunrise
Whispering graves now a
museum
Scars left
Bones face the other planets
A planet showing what exile
is
Mindock’s poetry is
never to be taken lightly. It thrives on blood, torture and evil
individuals while always letting the reader know that she is on the
side of the oppressed wherever they live. In Blood
Soaked Dresses and The
Whiteness Of Bone she addressed the
horrors of Central American dictatorships. And in this latest
endeavor she reminds anyone who may want to remember Gen. Francisco
Franco in some positive manner that he was nothing but another
vicious despot.