Los Caprichos: Unos A Otros Poem by Dennis Ryan

Saturday morning, April 21,2012; revised Sunday morning April 22 and April 29 2012; Thursday afternoon, May 31,2012

'I have learned from history first-hand that it repeats itself mercilessly... It is a mind-boggling thing to me that we never learn. After every war, we scream, 'Never again! ' Only until we do it again. I don't understand it.'
--Milos Forman, director of the film Goya's Ghosts

The world had gone mad around Goya and Ines,
and she survived years of torture and imprisonment
in the only way she could when 'put to the question'—
her screams ripped the Spanish darkness apart,
but were never answered, her love gone unrequited.
She was forgotten; no one remembered to save her
at last save Goya, and one day, suddenly set free,
she wandered the streets following the wagon
fetching the garroted body of Lorenzo to the grave.
The children laughing, skipping and playing
all around her went unnoticed, Goya following
guiltily after his muse. My adult 'self' constitutes
these two, this tragic pairing— the victim tortured,
traumatized, and the self-conscious, grieving artist.