In Lanjaron, Andalusia

In Lanjaron    a widow's honey shop

just as Max from Loubressac described

French peasant's fires

three sticks   

            feeding a frugal mound of ash

not Saxon style   

                    but in the style of the Lot

careful smolders   

stone chilled air   

wiping snot

modern Mason jars for honey

seemed out of place

where she sat 

conversing with portraits on the wall

father and son

           beneath whose portraits we posed

while she incanted Spanish prayers

to those she said    

                 were watching from above

atop the stairs  to Heaven 

where they beckoned her to come

leave her honey from the vega   

                                    our stares

of disbelief

then she took our money

© Dick Russell, 2013