Silhouettes of olive branches darken
the pale walls in a tavern along the mountain
she sits with a glass of arak,
liquor, water, ice cubes mixed together
the only customer in this village restaurant
A belly dancer shakes her hips at the woman,
colourful beads sway around her waist;
the dancer drops a veil down the woman’s back,
pulls it around her shoulders
It […]
pull!
take a bead, pivot
swing behind the clay!
follow… follow… follow…
squeeze…
now!
air thunder
time split by gunfire
echo tree and sky
clouds shiver, shake loose
a spittle of rain
grey smoke from a cracked gun
shotgun shell, powder hot
earth’s breath rushes back
wind on tufts of grass
soothes the fierce flash
lightning jolt,
the fractured instant
of ultimate power
over life and death.
clay pigeons,
the sport of kings.
a refined passion, they […]
Now you wake up at the train’s umpteenth extra-stop,
you have been nodding off, your stare drunk
in the bare, still patches of countryside
and the constant rails’ shine where eyes drop.
You wake up at the shuffling of steps
and see passengers leave, first lingering
on the railway tracks then in groups walking away
across the hedge, in the field, walking, […]
