Kit Kelen - #34 - for a series of fascist landscapes - the statues have fallen

for a series of fascist landscapes

the statues have fallen

after Auden

how far it is

from the standing grain

to the plate of buttered bread

before

lamps and shadows

teacups, the newspaper

as if object in series

as if days made a calendar

before

the trouble with rheumatics,

with indigestion, gout

glad sufffering of fools

a book of blank pages

the question of sag

typewritten scraps

and fingers in ribbon ink

now for a view

glad peasantry

the noble picnic

in other rooms

the unshaven faces

the hanged

the jackboots

and the Nazi steel

cigars and cocktails

salutes for the leader

the clergy

all signed up

for the kill

how far it is

from the standing grain

to bread buttered on the plate

before

the songs of liberation

sung to a rhythm of gunfire

the theory of some butterfly

has lost its mountain and must be chased

blue tango

through the ruins

and here one truth of superstition

this Don Quixote clown dictator

toil of the fields

the happy snaps

picnic with master on horseback

all traditional costumes

flamenco

cheers for the death of the caballero

blood dripping from a telephone

the radio broadcasting blood

red everywhere

lips of chess

the cross above the blackboard

the carnival tower

and memory of conquistadors

glories in sepia

Christ to take us all away

here lights shone in their faces

and the music still playing

past the last rung

only air

peasants of the peninsular

like the native

greedy for freedom

wanting it all at once

the sea keeps lapping

I take you in my arms

rough stones of the shore

horizons a blue funnel

and tears to rend a face

how far it is

from the standing grain

to buttered bread on a plate

 (from Picasso's 'Dream and Lie of Franco' series)