Carnations Around Me

I got my new guitar in my first week in fifth grade. I had four classes, then the Yom Kippur war broke, and Meir, my teacher, was drafted. He was the only soldier that I knew and therefore prayed for him to return safe from the war. I couldn’t touch the guitar for months.

Now i know that he was a different man when he returned, At that time i was happy that we could sing in the choir again.

The song he chose for us to sing is Flower in the Muzzle. For me, it was a nice imaginary dream……..Yesterday i found out that this dream was true in another continent in another country.

I celebrated the 50th Year of the Portuguese? Liberation Day in Leiria. The streets were covered with? Carnation flowers. The flower that shop owners gave to the people who stuck them in the soldiers’ guns in the liberation day on 25th of April 1974.

Early in the morning, the wind instrument orchestra marched in the streets playing music that was censored during the dictatorship. Then in Leiria's main garden where the statue of Luís de Cam?es stands residents read poets related to the dark times in the country.?

In the afternoon I enjoyed a concert with the local Philharmonic. The last song that they played the audience stood up and sang: Together We Can Beat Them!