Archives of Flesh by Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Author:Robert F. Reid-Pharr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT004040 Literary Criticism / American / African American
Publisher: NYU Press

Come now, all you who are singers,

And sing me the song of Spain.

Sing it simply that I might understand.

What is the song of Spain?

Flamenco is the song of Spain:

Gypsies, guitars, dancing

Death and love and heartbreak

To a heel tap and a swirl of fingers

On three strings.

Flamenco is the song of Spain.

I do not understand.

Toros are the song of Spain:

The bellowing bull, the red cape,

A sword thrust, a horn tip,

The torn suit of satin and gold,

Blood on the sand

Is the song of Spain.

I do not understand.

Pintura is the song of Spain:

Goya, Velasquez, Murillo,

Splash of color on canvass,

Whirl of cherub-faces.

La Maja Desnuda’s

The song of Spain.

What’s that?

Don Quixote! España!

Aquel rincón de la Mancha de

Cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme . . . .

That’s the song of Spain.

You wouldn’t kid me, would you?

A bombing plane’s

The song of Spain.

Bullets like rain’s

The song of Spain

Poison gas is Spain

A knife in the back

And its terror and pain is Spain.

Toros, flamenco, paintings, books—

Not Spain.

The people are Spain:

The people beneath that bombing plane

With its wings of gold for which I pay—

I, a worker, letting my labor pile

Up millions for bombs to kill a child—

I bought those bombs for Spain!

Workers made those bombs for a Fascist Spain!

Will I make them again, and yet again?5

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