Like an army from the Great War catapulting
out of trenches to battle blindly with enemy
machine guns and mortar, tourists take fire
on the Great Plaza of Salamanca. We line up
to sip ruby-red Rioja, savor eyelash-thin slices
of jamon, spy on the antlike antics
of the maneuvering crowds, who cross
the square in bunched-up patterns
of inscrutable geometry, of indirection.
They traipse from here to there and
back again on reconnaissance, as castanets
click cacophonously off the concrete plain,
and conversations carry skyward to the sun.
On the walls, bas-relief profiles of Spanish heroes
populate a paneled paean to celebrity, to spirit's might.
St. John of the Cross, Cervantes, even Quixote himself
look down upon us in one-eyed stares of forced patronage,
unwilling participants in the guerrilla tactics of sharing
their World Heritage riches with the disinherited of the world.
Conspicuous by her absence, St. Teresa of Avila
levitates above the maddening mobs to reach
the outskirts of her interior castle, which houses
myriad rooms of virtue that no ordinary mortal can
attain. Her destination: perfection, tilting at
the immense spiritual windmill in the sky. She blesses
me as the waiter carries another tray of wine, endless
libations for the infinite thirst of adventure, discovery,
and the spoils of travel. Winking at Cervantes,
I turn into a temporary resident, unlikely scion of Spain,
and masticate another wafer-thin portion of jamon.
My taste buds dance the flamenco in delight. I sigh.
O how Hemingway loved this sacred soil, his soul
tangled in the bullring, with its ovals of blood and sand.
Newspaper in hand, he stands in the stands to watch
the horses and woo the Spanish black that wraps
around the ring. Mind and spirit settle into the nosebleed
section on concrete benches that radiate heat
in the afternoon. Soon death will follow, not for them,
but for the witless bulls, fierce, innocent victims
of the blood lust of war. Who has nostalgia for this now?
Who kills the monstrous beast within? It rages and rages,
pawing sand, seeing red, seething with hatred
of its tormentor, thinking -- no, feeling -- only "attack."
I have followed the trail of Santiago de Compostela
longingly in my mind, peering over the Pyrenees from
the French plateau that self-abates at the foot of the peaks.
I watch pilgrims scramble through Roland's Breach,
a toothless gap planted in the middle of saw-tooth summits.
Through it shines a light to beatify Iberia. I stand on
the plain, St. James' clam shell firmly in hand,
my walking stick crooked as a branch bearing fruit.
Ahead, only spectacle and absolution await, incense
swinging through the nave like smoke from a failed
mortar round. We stand in waves of penitents, praying
that Santiago still curries favor for the faint at heart.
War is hell, say the toungeless bulls. Listen to them bellow.
