outwait outrun outwit





TALES OF AN ORANGEPEELER

an archive of pleasures, wounds, sublimations
& other curiosities :: profile


12.30.06, saturday afternoon


From Africa to Europe;
from that lovely arid warm country
to this lovely rainy cold country;
from cloudless skies & smog-shrouded mountains
to vast silvery vistas of hail & rain;
from Rilke on solitude & Edward Said on "Yeats & Decolonisation"
to all of Tolkien & Proust's � la recherche du temps perdu;
from the medina's exhaustive, exhausting interior
to village streets emptied of all save the odd well-groomed dog;
from too much smog & anarchic traffic in Marrakech
to light wandering on the wall from a car passing thru;
from storks nesting atop minarets
& cattle egrets amidst the shepherds
to the hens of my neighbor who has lived here all her long life;
from cacti hedgerows, shanty towns & mass roadworks
to barbed hedgerows bald of berry, real estate signs, & Sunday drivers;
from a skull crossboned by wrenches in a taxi in Tangier
& overcrowded grande taxis to this or that city
to our little white Peugeot van grumbling in the icy morning;
from croissants, little coils of butter, eggs slow-fried in olive oil,
jus d'orange, fat dates, olives & bananas in our hotel room
to cheesy baked bean potato bakes, muesli, cottage cheese, miso soups
& every last morsel we can scrounge;
from that last bitter drop of Moroccan wine
to the first ruby glass of sloe gin jarred in October;

from not-thinking-ahead but tracing circles
that involve events even 11 years back,
times I thought too hard to bear, yet here I am
in another part of the world; far
from believing in a solid sense of self

to 2007, to wading through currents
multitudinous & far-reaching. All
I need to know & remember
this swims in me;

"There is nothing like returning to a place
that remains unchanged
to find the ways
in which you yourself have altered."
--Nelson Mandela




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