War Stories: Soldiers (2)

The Spic, who had been born in Spain,
was the son of Spanish anarchists who had come to America in the 20s,
went back in '36, & somehow managed to escape again to America by '40.
He fought in the Spanish Republican Army until the fall of Spain, 
jumped over to France, & then back to the U.S. Just in time.
With his U.S. citizenship thru his parents, he was drafted,
and marked w/ an inadmissable notation in his Permanent Army Record:P.A.F. 
P.A.F. stood for "Premature Antifascist" & carried a Security Warning. 
This was intended to mark anyone who was known to have been anti-Fascist 
before Pearl Harbor, or @ the very earliest, The Battle of Britain. 
Anything earlier, passive or active, was considered Suspect. Un-American. 
The Spic was Spanish by act & deed; that was actively Un-American. 
in the 30s his brand of being Spanish was above & beyond the call of duty. 
Spellman, Cushing & Curley were the true American stand on Spain:
    pro-Franco, pro-Fascist: P.F.
                                                               Bill Costley

(This poem was printed in ASPECT/No. 71.)