Hot Blood In The Subway Poem by Savlo De Santos

My kid asked me soon or later
as we had just watched the news
what is a hero made of?
Is it a man like me an you?

I tried to answer the young one
with not too solemn a tone
but now that I think of it
It is made of flesh and bone

what makes a man jump wildly
in front of a car in motion
or a woman cross a river,
have they all of fear no notion?

On the news I saw a man
being shot down by some nutcase
he was shot and more than twice!
spilling red over the whole place

't was some mad man in the subway
wiriting rantings on the wall,
a policeman headed his way
and he was saddly first to fall

Wearing white out from the train
came some chap, an angry fellow
try to take the gun but failed
he just saw the sparkly yellow

What did he do? , why try to help?
why rush so much and try to fix things?
why go so grand? why be so brave?
corageous man reching his sixties

Thus fell the man, the one now dead
after being cowardly exectuted
thus was painted the floor with red
boiling blood, no wind to cool it

What makes a hero? , asked again
are they born with iron guts?
were they raised to feel no pain
knew no fear when they were tots?

I told my kid this answer,
as I came out from my thoughts
heroes are people around you
who care for others a lot

Heroes doubt and are affraid
they've been hit and sure have cried
and what makes me so amazed
that they know that they could die.


Rest In peace, Esteban Cervantes Barreras, I wish I was an artist to make a poem worthy of your bravery, blood that's spilled like yours cannot be wiped out, It leaves a mark. May many men and women have your guts and go through life unaffraid of watching straight into the barrel.