maladjustment
I had put on
my reddest dress
to spread brightness
on my arrival
but these women were rabid
had crawled to the drug locker
with their pee bags
trailing behind
and their white gowns
open at the back
for ease of examination
I tried to stop them
screamed for the nurse
but they were already
devouring
the coloured pills
and celebrating
their ephemeral victory
over doomed
maladjustment
Flamenco Woman -- Ashvin Harrison
Flamenco is a professionalized art-form based on various folkloric music traditions of the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Extremadura, and Murcia in southern Spain. Its 1st mention was in the 1789 epistolary novel "Cartas marruecas," by colonel José de Cadalso y Vázquez. The word may have been derived from "flama" (flame) because of the fiery intensity of its performances, although in 1933 Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas, the "father" of Andalusian nationalism, suggested in "Orígenes de lo Flamenco y Secreto del Cante Jondo" (the term for its most intense form] that it came from the Hispano-Arabic "fellah mengu" (expelled peasant), the euphemism for Moriscos in Andalusia (secret Muslims who had pretended to convert to Christianity) who culturally joined with the Roma ("Gypsy") newcomers into the country.
ReplyDeleteDuane, thank you for matching my poem with this expressive image, and for the enriching explanations -- all very much appreciated!
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