Homage to Catalonia

A professor of mine once told me that one of his favorite things about the people of Catalonia was the way that they allowed the statues of their conquerors to slowly waste away, rather than pulling them down at once. The wind, rain, and occasional drunken urination eventually pulled the facial features from the statues, which is the greatest insult of all - the conquerors were so insignificant that no one then remembered who they were.

Give homage to the region where the head
Of conquering Napoleon is bare,
Uncovered to the urine and the air
Corroding off the image he had bred
Too briefly in a land so very long
Accustomed to autonomy.  Alas,
The very independence given pass
To argue for itself, in being strong,
Is threatened by its strength, and by a vote.
If Arthur Mas is able, let him be
The leader of the patient and the free,
But never let the voting be the rote
And easy way to disavow the claim
That Catalan and people are the same.