Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FIESTA, by EDITH AGNEW


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FIESTA, by                    
First Line: All the years / they make fiesta in the streets
Last Line: All the years.


All the years
They make fiesta in the streets.
I am a small boy.
To me all the fiesta is of the clown.
An old accordion hangs from his thin neck,
And he is playing "El Rancho Grande" with many wrong notes.
Small ones are pushing in crowds around him.
Quick comes his long arm with reaching fingers;
"I will take that one!" he shouts,
"That fat one! That little fat one!"
I fall in running, screaming and laughing;
Then on his shoulder
I ride the clown.

I am a young man.
I hate Alfonso because he dances
With my Rosita in the jarabe,
And at the finish, kisses her lips.
He say it is the dance -- he have to do it;
But I must fight him behind the dance hall.
Rosita cries much. -- Well, let her cry then!
Tomorrow she kiss me,
And not Alfonso!

I am a father.
Our little baby, she is too sick.
We sit and watch her, we wave the paper
To keep the flies off and make a wind.
We pray with all the beads, times and times over;
She is no better. How cruel fiesta!
How can the clown play and youths be dancing?
Our little baby,
Maybe she die.

I am a man grown.
Rosa is fat now, but she can sew well
Fiesta costumes for all the children.
They play fiesta for many mornings,
They dream fiesta for many nights.
Already Maggie can join the dancing,
Learns the jarabe,
She and Jose.

I am an old man.
I watch fiesta: streets filled with people;
Booths beautiful with colored cloth and paper,
For selling sweets and drinks and noisy toys.
How elegant the girls, how gay the men are!
What music, lights, and stir of talk and laughing!
How pretty goes the great new wheel that turns,
With horses on it, and children riding!
But I am old now,
Tired and alone.

They make fiesta in the streets
All the years.





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