Poetry Competition 2024 Best Llanito Category Castle Road

by Giordano Durante

The essence of Castle Road, its pith, its meat, its core –
Where it starts, in that house ahí del Carta,
Where you grew up, pataleando el top bunk where your
Sister slept; en Carta mismo, los bollos empalagosos and cold
Cuts, mortadella con anillos de aceitunas, the fruit machines
Glowing in a corner - the nub of it, the filthy fulcrum,
Its grubby spirit - más p’arriba in the shuffling of las Viejas
For the evening novena; huelen a rosas y mothballs
And they’re in love con el cura, take him madalenas pal té.
In that smear of juice el camión de basura left this morning,
That’s its heart, its groin, its vital spark - when it plateaus by
El Patio Policía, en los gritos perdidos de los goles
On a concrete pitch, or down where it splits in two, divided
By a dilapidated block - for something so great to double must
Be a marvel, a myth for us to cling to today, its guts, its viscera,
Its frontal lobe - yes, we feel it in the liver, in our mouldy midnight
Coughing, in our weak bladders, in our breathless longing
Porque en la memoria corren todas las calles dentro de nosotros sin fin.

Judge’s comments: Llanito Language Winner
Castle Road
There’s a Beat Generation spirit to this freewheeling poem, a real anatomy lesson to the Upper Town with all its crust and grime. Yet the poet manages to capture a sense of nostalgia beyond the romantic, with a keen eye that does not shy away from all those moments that make up a childhood. Perhaps in some sense, an elegy to a way of life in that area of Gibraltar that has sadly left us.