1

with shoplifted eye

makeup pencil on bath tissue

the desperate scrawlings of

sundrenched

pen-starved

wayfarers

330 am

from a shower

sulphuric

with fado

                              do emerge

to stand naked

on hotel veranda to face

an Africa

lit by ideas

a wind ripe with

pear // leather // vinegar // tobacco

which carries welcomely

no familiarity of home

2

outbound we click soft

like komboloi

between wrinkled thumbs

the platform's heat obscures

a sign reading έξοδος/exodus

a gypsy boy palms bongos

trains part the sea

3

folk is in waiting

woven alive

petulengro is

a heartbeating fabric

strung

from peasant memory

mangroves

through her

none of us are navigable