Sorry for the prosaic title.
“Patatas bravas” drowning in sauce
The sight gives me pause
Is this what makes the potatoes brave?
Surviving a thick salsa… grave?
Forget the sea view of a room
Here you can spot the laundry room
As you open the ventana
Straight into the washed trousers of Juliana.
But there’s nothing like the never-ending street hug
Embracer and embracee looking all snug
It’s therapeutic, if a shade stalkery, to watch
A delightful memory not easy to dislodge.
“Compartir los gastos” undeclared rent money’s called
Hmm… has the concept of transparency been mauled?
And while “cariño” when ordering coffee sounds special
Wait until you realise the treatment’s far from preferential.
The beach is a delicious blessing,
With football there’s absolutely no messing,
Directness everywhere
Causing my formality to timely, finally begin to be… nowhere.
Still wrapping my head around
Santa Maria del Mar having no sea around,
Also how to tame the lady who will speak only Catalan
As though English or even Spanish was an ominous gun.
The idea of no “Insta” is an unforgivable sin
Any other social media might as well go in the bin,
So I take solace in the next thing, with a grin:
Two of my initials, RB, throughout the city, make me feel like a star
Till I learn the letters non-mystically mean… “restaurant” and “bar”.
What’s Barcelona to me then?
An accidental fresh start
Part of no plan or chart,
A surprise
A sunshiny prize,
A maze
A way out of the haze,
A fate twister
A spirit lifter,
A rocking electric cello riff
A soothing “What if?”,
A goodbye to the overly stressful
A chance to focus on the truly artful,
A switch so that worries disperse.
A shift to a divergent universe,
The opposite of a curse,
Proof I’m not risk-averse
And wish the damage of the cold to reverse.
The city of the enchantingly diverse,
Where locals openly, constantly converse
As a result no grudges seem to nurse,
Whilst bikinis (the sandwich!) and cañas coerce,
To the point where, alas, there’s zero euros in everyone’s purse.
But I hope that my poem at least… hasn’t been nonsense verse. 😊
