“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

O Spain     you dark spain
Bearer of Cervantes, Boabil, Lorca, and Picasso
Gypsy caves and carwash caravans
Huddling and high stepping
Over a torrent of rivers
   sun-baked stone
Our civilized lights are shining
   on your gatherings of blood.

Ghosts in graves
And Hemingway leaning across the
   knife-scarred table
Telling Brett how to live   and drink   and live
Among the ash and sangria.

O Spain     you dark spain of flamenco
   and soft drinks
   and hard governments
A soft shoe Don Juan
Dancing among windmills
Tapping
Against the inquisition
   of circling
Bull rings and silk skirts and fire.