Saturday, September 21, 2019

Alba de Tormes 1975

Alba de Tormes 1975



I saw your relic that they kept 
One sleepy Spanish afternoon
When the sun chased both man and beast
From the torrid streets of Alba. 

The year was nineteen seventy five
And we were twenty five
Young Legionaries of Christ
Herded inside the dark church walls

Dressed in black soutanes 
With shiny hair and shiny shoes
And bright white smiles 
Young innocents of God. 

During our twelve month stay 
In proud and fusty Salamanca 
Whose academic reputation lay baking 
In the scorching heat nearby. 

We gathered round Teresa 
Or what was left of her
We who had hardly seen a female ankle
Were left gazing at her heart. 

But the memory never left
The image that was etched 
The presence of a saint
In a hot and blasted landscape. 

A strange and noble place
Where history seemed to freeze 
And time stood still
Where history turned few pages. 

The black soutanes unchanged
For decades and for centuries 
Til change came sweeping through 
The year that Franco died. 


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