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Él Que Mató al Jefe

What does it feel like to kill a dictator, blow the head

off a torturer, send a rapist to hell? Antonio Imbert

Barrera and 13 more slayed the Dominican Goat—only

two survived. Barrera hid in a diplomat’s closet for half

a year before he could walk free, and ever after needed

bodyguards to protect him from Trujillo’s cronies. Had

he been caught, he would have suffered like the rest—

forced to eat his own children, watch his loved ones broken

with his eyes sewn open or endure with eyes sewn shut;

Trujillo and his henchmen boasted diabolical imaginations.

Ever after, on May 30th, Barrera wore the shoes and watch

he had that night, toasted the same moon that stood vigil

with him on the road. How his hands must have trembled,

the night waning, Trujillo’s car not yet come, the screams

of the disappeared eddying dark dust. What does it feel like

to haul a slack body up and toss it in the trunk for evidence,

to drive the long road back knowing that now there is no

excuse, that the gaping beak of tomorrow demands his

diligence, his and his country-mates, that out of so much

blood, some good must come?

Devon Balwit is a teacher and writer from Portland, OR. She has two chapbooks forthcoming in 2017: 'how the blessed travel,' from Maverick Duck Press, and 'Forms Most Marvelous,' from dancing girl press. Her recent work has found many homes, among them: The Cincinnati Review, Red Earth Review, Noble/Gas Quarterly, Peacock Review, Sweet, The Stillwater Review, Oyez, Timberline Review, The Bookends Review, and Kindred.

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