The Bells

Outside la peña de Antonio Chacon

The bell rings out from

The convent’s coven

White material draped over praying nuns

And statues of crying Madonnas

And the low whispered hums

Chimes ding-ding-ding with my heart

A shared cigarette

Under the lamp

With a dark gentleman

Broken heart gentle smile

And again the bell tolls

Heavy and strong

And all that is left

Is moonlit meetings

A smoke curled kiss

Under a plaque in a small pasaje

I cried again after a winter of drought

A fountain of tears on a dry Andalusian street

A love curse

Gypsy cast

A low burning fire

A terrible waterfall

A dark silent bull

Cherished kept trinkets

All distinct and separate

Yet intertwined within the stones

Of a small Spanish town

And the broken brick and andamios

Have seen it all

The cries of passion, gripping,

biting, calling, weeping

Tight and loosely held

The letting go

The embrace

And in those palms

And claps of lucid joy

Is the thing

That could never be understood

Or held

El A - i - re

El A - i - re

You grip me

In the syllables

You hold me

In the music

And promises painted on old walls

And in the bells I hear my heart chime

But how silent and unspoke the echoes

In the crumbling walls around us.