Journey home

By Parson Thru

Fri, 06 Apr 2018

2904 reads

14 comments

Old man
in baggy suit
forces “Land of Hope & Glory”
from a toneless violin

At the bottom of the stairs

the accordionist
sits upon his stool
wheezing salsa from his bellows

The people passing
show their gratitude in céntimos

The Andean
in the metro car
eviscerates Simon & Garfunkel
with a wooden flute

He holds a small bundle up

and makes his pitch

Key-ring flutes

Someone hands a euro
and he moves on down the car

The burned man calls
“No tengo dedos – No tengo trabajo”
tossing coins between his stumps

He sees me
and his lips straighten in a smile

He stops and asks me how I am

“Bueno. How are you?”

He shrugs
and looks at his hands

We do this every time

“Más o menos?”

He nods

“My stop.” I tell him
and he gives a wink

“No tengo dedos – No tengo trabajo”

he wanders on
tossing coins between his stumps

The keyboard man
plays discordant medleys

where the tunnels meet

Paper flags stand
above his keys
Spanish
and Columbian perhaps

He’s always there
but no one seems to notice him

******

"No tengo dedos - No tengo trabajo"

"I have no fingers - I have no job"

"Bueno"

"Good"

"Más o menos?"

"More or less? / Not bad?"

Comments

I love this one Parson. Could

Permalink Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on Fri, 2018-04-06 04:34

I love this one Parson. Could you please put a translation of the spanish underneath? I know it's tedious, but it's one of the terms of the site that everything has to be in english or have a translation

Thanks insert. No problem. In

Permalink Submitted by Parson Thru on Fri, 2018-04-06 06:17

Thanks insert. No problem. In the text or beneath it?

Parson Thru

I'd do it beneath so as not

Permalink Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on Fri, 2018-04-06 06:45

I'd do it beneath so as not to detract from the flow - you could put an asterisk, or you could just put the phrase in spanish at the bottom, followed by the translation - that would be fine if you don't have many and/or they're short

Thanks insert.

Permalink Submitted by Parson Thru on Fri, 2018-04-06 07:11

Thanks insert.

I think I probably got away with it a few times, but it's good practice. Eliot loses me a bit with his German. I'm glad it's in there, though.

Parson Thru

I

Permalink Submitted by Ewan on Fri, 2018-04-06 06:48

bet that was one of Tony's rules.

On the whole I think it's a good thing to put a translation at the end though. It gives people a good feeling if they've worked it out. If they haven't they've learned something. One hopes so, anyway.

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