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.
