From an Antique Land

(extracts)

1
Cows browse
in the Basilica
black-and-white
against black columns.

Eyes blue
in the basalt darkness
glow like poppies.

Umm Quais.

2
She waits patient at the gate
for us, tattooed patterns
on her face, weathered
as the desert.
INDENT The child
who clings to her black skirts
wears a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.

Quasr Hamam at Sarak.

4
A chameleon
ignores the laws
of Justinian
on a granite wall.

Quasr et Hallorat.

7  Petra
Pink palaces
beyond the dreams of postmen,
rose-red rocks
beyond the dreams of palettes,
wait to be reborn
beyond the dark passage.

8
I smear my mouth with Vaseline
my lips dry
for lack of your kisses .

(for Catherine)

10  Aphrodite
She dances
- tiny, golden,
voluptuous -
to unheard music
in a museum case
in Liverpool.

Jordan/Liverpool
April - October 1991

from Not Fade Away, Poems 1989-1994. Published by Bloodaxe Books 1994.