Somewhere Near Nijar

Photo: Ancama_99

It isn't any news to those who have traveled there, but for you who haven't, Spain is a land of strange extremes. Dignified and comic simultaneously, I could believe it is the place where the circus was invented. Driving through the southeast corner of Andalucía, a desert country, the driest in Europe, my friend Nancy and I were sharing thoughts about the landscape and the people when she suddenly screamed sending chills up my spine and nearly ending us in a ditch. Gathering my scattered wits from the odd corners of the car where they had fled, she pointed out what could have been the set for a Fellini film. Set solitary in the midst of a desert plain was what could only be called a cemetery for carnivals, filled with remnants of side-shows and floats and displays for the discriminating carney.

In a barren country
of small delight
where even thoughts
find little food or drink
and must lie dessicated
among abandoned
catechisms,
a desert way-station mirage
rests
plaintively calling
here, for a penny or two
a small price
a tiny coin
for this pittance
a carney, a gypsy
and the master of ceremonies will
tie your eyes to an old idea,
force feeding
your starving roots
slaking your thirsts
ending your hungers
at this desert well
and cry his delights
between the new and the newer
to the future of your futures.
Lady and Gentleman
Señora y Señor
¡Aquí esperamos con mágico!
On this dry desert road
there waits a simple
magic prestidigitory meal
with
mannikins and marvels
serving your deepest desires
"Check you strength!
Here are the actual barbells from he,
the strongest man alive
See the marvels and the marvelous
The Fat Lady or Her Beloved Bearded Sister!
Here, my beloved guests
reside the best,
that will shock and astound
the Freaks and their Friends
Animals Native and Animals Exotic
Fear not, we have marvels unending.
Though our reputation must a slight
tarnish bear
but though
each miracle may
need slight repair perhaps be slightly broken,
such minimal flaws cannot hide us,
we here,
the most,
the incomparable, astounding
universe
of the fun and the frightening
the finite and the infinite.
Here it is
where verse is reverse
and life is lived!
The Fulsome Funhouse of Fabulous Mirrors.
Step Right Up!
Step Right Up Here!
This is your last chance
Last chance to see
What you've forgotten all along...
The thrilling...
The marvelous...
The scintillating...
what you've never been shown
the fantastic
incredible
Place Between Places
Where the actual Unknown is most truly Known.