village life – Page 50 – don't confuse the narrator

early awakening

Alarm

The neighbour’s rooster wakes
and flings his morning warning
to the hills. The echoes stretch
a string between hoarse-throated brays
and barks which tumble to the still-grey sky.

Comprehending compression

Definiciones del
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española:

comprensión.
(De comprehensión).
1. f. Acción de comprender.

compresión.
(Del lat. compressĭo, -ōnis).
1. f. Acción y efecto de comprimir.

Y tú, ¿irías al taller ofrecido por esta gente?

autumn, but the sky’s still blue…

cloud

alone
in the blue, a small cloud, broad
in the beam as a nursery aeroplane
crumbles
and fades
to leave
a wisp
of
vapour
.

coches de choque

After three weeks of the grey-green UK “summer”, I returned to the dusty yellows of Spain and found the village in the throes of fiestas.

Las fiestas del veraneante, to be precise – the annual celebration during the last week of August which is put on for the benefit of those who spend summer in the pueblo. Veranear – “to summer”. Not a verb that exists in English, though we do talk of birds wintering in warmer climes.

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two old men

I don’t usually stop and talk to anyone on my daily walk to the village. It’s just a quick visit to correos to check for mail (9 times out of 10 there isn’t any) and straight back, working up a sweat.

There are maybe half a dozen old guys I see regularly, but we simply mumble un saludo and keep going. And there’s one vieja who does a short walk, all on the flat, as far as the polideportivo, and I might exchange a few words with her.

Today, however, I spoke to two old men.
Continue reading “two old men”