First of six

Gold cherry

By Parson Thru

Tue, 28 May 2019
  • 2122 reads
13 comments
 

Maybe it was the shock

The posters don’t give you that

It takes an act of violence to kill a healthy being

Not choreography and spectacle

Nor the calm of blindfold horses

Not bestial intent to disembowel

Nor lances driven in the shoulder, twisted

Not jabs of banderillas

Nor the goading and the posturing

Not flat squeal of trumpets

Nor living flesh, pierced and bleeding

Dumbfounded, staggering 

Mesmerised by capes

Shadow cuts the spectacle in two

Sun beats upon the throes

Crowd are on their feet

Applauding

Man in front pumps Havana smoke

Hand heavy on the shoulder of his tufted boy

Hero draws his sword from heaving mound

Assistant stoops, dagger in hand

Elbow working short violent jerks

Sawing into bone and spinal cord

Useless legs jolt

Body jumps as hit by 50,000 volts 

Death

Tears on the cheeks of N

Sobbing gently

A woman well acquainted

Two Chinese tourists turn towards the exit

Ashen

The mules make a false start

Lurch across the sand

Hauled back, horns are snagged

The animal, now just meat, is dragged from sol to sombra

Trumpets squeal their satisfaction

First of six

Certificate PG
Poem
Travel

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

You draw the contrast between the pageantry and the violence so well.  I wish I could understand why this plays such a part in another country's culture, even now.  

Submitted by Parson Thru on

I haven't done justice to that feeling. Thank you for the cherries.

They say you have to see it for yourself. In my case, once you have, you see a lot of other things,too.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I hadn't understood the difference between picador and matador, is the first just in the ''goading' and the latter finishing off the wounded bull? Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AVFC_enBE803BE803&q=picadors+images...

 

He's a  Cabron's cabron ( f******g bastard in English)

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Rhiannon. I'm no expert, but the person we generally think of as the bullfighter is the torero. "Mata" means kill. An abattoir is a matadero. I've never seen the grisly end of a bullfight and didn't realise that a person other than the torero "finishes off" the bull with a dagger. I assume he's the matador. Without checking, the ones on horseback and the ones on foot may both be picadors. The mounted ones use a long Lance - two, in fact. The ones on foot carry two short spears, which they try to drive into the shoulder. The difference once the picadors have finished is so pronounced that we wondered if the tips are doped.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

I'm with you ( as are many decent Spanish people)

https://www.abctales.com/story/ed-crane/swimming-blood

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Ed. Agree with the second point. Peeing myself at the first. :)

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

The difference once the picadors have finished is so pronounced that we wondered if the tips are doped.

I know what you mean, but I doubt it, the ****s are aiming for a specific vein or artery I think. They're just weakened by massive blood loss.

I went to my first/last bull fight with a couple of mates when we were on holiday too many years ago. We ended up cheering on the bull. I don't think the spanish were best pleased with us, but I'm sure we wouldn't have been the last to do that.

Like you I wrote a poem about it. I don't know if I ever put it on here, certainly its not in my backlist, I might have removed it. 

 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

I've been and looked at the one at the link. I'm just reading a book of Jack Kerouac's haikus. This one is stripped down a fair bit, I'm just wondering whether the mark could be hit with a haiku. Might go away and play. One more class first. Yes, I think we were willing the bulls to victory. At least the horses have armour now. What a sight it must have been in Hemingway's time. It's just an erupting boil filled with the pus of humanity's inhumanity.

Parson Thru

Submitted by airyfairy on

A brilliant poem, and our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day.  Please do share/retweet if you enjoy it too.

Picture:  Pixabay Creative Commons

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you so much! Xx

Parson Thru

Submitted by fey_mouse on

You were brave to go, you could not have written this  if you had not. And everything that  might inform or persuade even one other person, is a good thing. Like reporting from a war.

 

Submitted by celticman on

that's culture for you.