El Alcazar in Segovia
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- El Alcazar in Segovia
Following too closely, the cobblestone streetechoing my feet, they were always there,the threesome, all about twenty, two girls,a guy, all blond, all very good-lookingin a chic, well-dressed, MTV kind of way,always there, every turn.
When I look back,there they are always, almost on my heels,our route to the castle one burning ascent,the Spanish sun relentless in its gaze.A threesome, I thought: he has a good timefor sure, and then: you're a pathetic fool.
Next: vertigo at the ticket window.The guy—cool shades, nose ring, earring, teased hair,turned back from the window, began to sign.The girls signed back. It must have been assent.They entered the castle. I lost all three.
But I still hear them, turning a corner. [End Page 248]
PETER COOLEY has published nine books of poetry, eight of them with Carnegie Mellon, the most recent of which is Night Bus to the Afterlife. He lives in New Orleans, where he is the Senior Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane. He has poems in recent issues of The New Yorker, The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, The Hopkins Review, and other magazines.
