Project: A new era

07 THE PHOENIX

It turns—everything round you is turning.
You fear neither fortune nor age.
And dance, by your hope still sustained
Certain time will not wound you or see you changed,
For you are beautiful—and he knows.
Then down to the street, with your sandals on your feet,
And softly you glide
Past the cars and the trams.
And as you advance, boldly defying the future,
A drum starts to thunder:
It’s a cumbia, a cumbia rolling on.
Drink—the whole of life, drink it deeply,
Dissolve it into your Cointreau.
And dance, let your rebel soul follow
A wind that will settle and slow
Over his face and over this town below.
Then once more you try on your latest mascara,
And sharpen the blades
Of sensuality.
Ready to plunge through the darkened back alleys,
Listen—the drums:
It’s a cumbia, a cumbia rolling on.
Laugh—as you strip, you defy him.
You’re innocent only in part.
You graze him; he seeks you; you vanish.
You live beyond this reality,
Fly, phoenix, fly!
Sing, woman—sing and enchant us,
Still playing the selfsame cliché.
And fly; let the dancing console you,
As you dip and then sweep away,
While night draws its curtain for you.
And while the wind keeps on blowing,
You let yourself be cradled
By vanity.
The fire burns low and the cumbia dies away,
As darkness steals the day;
Slowly, slowly, slowly the solo plays.
The fire burns low and the cumbia dies away,
As darkness steals the day;
Slowly, slowly, slowly the solo plays.

She does not move through the world: she compels it to revolve around her.

She is woman in her fullest, most radiant and dangerous form. Beautiful without apology, sensual without becoming prey, vain without being fragile, free without needing to prove it. She knows her worth and demands that the world take notice.

That is why she is frightening.

Because she does not merely submit to being watched: she watches back. She does not occupy the space she is granted: she takes it. She does not play the role others have written for her: she rewrites it as she dances, smiles, chooses and disappears whenever she pleases.

Within a resplendent, fast and colourful cumbia, the song celebrates a sovereign, physical and unconquerable femininity. A presence that defies time, age, the street, desire and the male gaze, turning every step into an act of power.

She is the phoenix.

She may be desired, feared, misunderstood, condemned. But never possessed. Never diminished. Never erased.

Because when the fire seems to be dying, that is precisely when it begins to burn again.