Lynne Wycherley
Moroccan Street Market
The souks of Tetouan fill our senses,
their alleys writhing like coloured snakes
with foulahs and silks, fresh-dyed babouches,
donkeys, handcarts, pickpockets, beggars.
Djebali women in cartwheel hats.
Gaunt men in drifting dark robes.
Saffron, cumin, ginseng, jasmine.
Lustre of dates, olives, pimentos.
Fresh fish: a flood of new moons.
Bunched eucalyptus. ‘For the breathing
and the snoring’ says Jamal
as a stallholder throws him a cigarette.
He squints a smile, lights up.
Throws change to a cadaver.
Two girls on a step display hands,
yesterday’s henna runs like dried blood.
Through feet, we glimpse green herbs.
Mint, coriander. A squatting woman.
Her eyes are obsidian
in a shrivelled fruit. So patient
she could have grown from the ground.
At the doorway of a mosque,
quiet men retrieve shoes.
Unshod, our minds tread on silk.
Search for the mihrab, a chink
held to Mecca. Ghostings of light.
Page(s) 94
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