Spain in a Jar

‘Bienvenido a España, señora!’

He smiled and stretched forth his arm.

His sinewy brown hand held the blue-glass sea,

the azure sky. The lemon-yellow sun

sealed its treasures. I cupped it gently

in my lukewarm, northern hands,

eagerly prised the buttered sun

from its tight, round mouth,

inhaled its heady humours. Thyme,

bay, succulent sap, heat-sweet earth.

I drank greedily the strange brew

and was intoxicated. Stumbled

drunk past clicking crickets, fell

into the arms of Spain, her embrace

a silken sash, a sigh of southern smiles.

First published in Reach Poetry