Madrid, 11 March 2004

By Juliette M. van de Mheen

I can't forget her

A sad Señora at El Pozo station

At 8.38 am

Her missed train

Death's destructive steel snake

Shattered Spanish dreams

She beheld this inferno

Shell-shocked

Almost crying

In a strangled voice

Marching  in poignant protest

Among all those millions

Their enormous anger

Exploded  in  the streets

Shouting: "NO!"

Madrid, one year later

At exactly 7:37 am

All church bells

Sang the song 

Of Spain's sorrow

Which broke my heart.


Juliette M. van de Mheen lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has worked at the University Library of Amsterdam, where she worked partially for the Rare and Early Printings Project), and she now works at the Municipal Archive. Five other poems were published at Naturewriting.com, The Shofar Literary Review and Troubadour21. Readers can find her blog here.