SPAIN: FLAMENCO
By
Dolores de Leon

MARIO: Guitarist

Pineapple on a window sill
In the early a. m. of Spain.
(Sun by Matisse).

I hear the shimmer of trills,
High grass, and river flowing with shawl fringe.

Water rippling through guitar strings,
Giving promises that God is a Lady
With a rose in her hair and perfume
At her breasts.

CHENIN: Singer

The coarse edge to his big voice.
The whole land, like moldy earth,
Held in his closed hands.

(I taste Spain under my tongue)

His sound shapes itself around the words
And they fall away from inside, leaving
Empty, crying, spaces.

LOURDES: Dancer

Beyond her heels, the click of details:
Head, hands, eye, skirt, fan, shawl, shoulders,
hips
Ripple from her center, touch on each other,
Never overlap.

Or she pauses, holding stillness in her body.
Then bends low,
In a long curve, shawl outstretched behind her,
A great bird's wing slowly turns.