Thursday, January 12, 2012

Burt Kimmelman


El Paseo
                        Festival of the Three Kings
                        Barcelona, 5 January 2011
  
The brightness of solstice evening
and the procession of tableaus
through the street, the night of the Three
Kings, and the only way to get
from here to there is underground
where musicians play songs hundreds
of people stop to sing before
their trains arrive to take them home.

But Diane and I veer away
to La Rambla, even tonight,
for our paseo before
dinner, the crowds here on the move,
many people arm in arm as
they walk, above them white lights strung
in trees that front the buildings’ stone
facades along the grand boulevard.

The cafés are everywhere, chairs
and tables and diners, and
mimes in their costumes portraying
the fascinations of our lives –
later we stroll through a courtyard
by a church, where there are people
admiring a Christmas crèche –
the day’s siesta long over.

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