Page 69 - Microsoft Word - 1_light travels_FOR FLIPBOOK ADJUSTED.docx

II
After an evening walk for a glass of wine and a slice of street life, I return to the room. Googling Triana’s surrounds, I learn
these ceramic tiles
are baked from the river’s clay,
as are all the others
that clad the facades of poetic living.
Now a long way
from the conference venue’s sounds
spilling over couches draped with delegates (multilingual conversation, lift music,
a thundering indoor waterfall,
hand dryers blasting like jets at take-off each time a restroom door opens).
My presentation is done.
I collapse onto the hostel bed, plastic creaking under the sheet. Sink my teeth into readings
to deepen my proposal draft. Reach for my phone,
let Paco de Lucía’s Triana dissolve foyer negotiations
and cans thundering
down the vending machine shaft.