Ken Smith
Paperwork for the Consul
Verde que te quiero verde,
the ship on the sea,
the horse on the mountain.
I’m drinking rum in the Gran Hotel
with Federico García in the dark,
the barman’s name is Ruben Dario.
Here the townsfolk call me the Sailor,
Hola marinero, for some reason
I don’t understand. Perhaps
the white cottons I wear, the Panama
that blew off in the sudden wind into a pretty girl’s fingers
and went off on her pretty girl’s head
and who was I to say es mío, and gave it
for a sailor’s kiss in passing.
Or maybe it’s the roll of my walk
wandering the heat struck streets
in la neblina, the mid-day heat-haze,
wary, amused, curious,
mad dog or Englishman,
looking for those two good sisters
Marie and Juana, purveyors of cigarillos populares.
Do you want to meet Mr White?
The answer is No. The thought
you could die here anyway marinero,
muerto para siempre, dentro este país quebrado
broken para cocaína, violencia, avaricia.
There’d be no lasting memorial.
Some paperwork for the Honorary Consul,
whose card I carry in my belt. A pointless enquiry.
You had no name anyway, marinero.
Page(s) 2
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The