Wednesday, 9 March 2016

from Blackwater Quartet, selection 69



The Desire for Distant Things

The point here is not to describe
what did or did not take place in Morocco.
What occurred in the Atlas highlands a century ago
retains the rawness of incident
bleached of diplomacy.

The sheikh killed in the insurgence, the captain
retired to France with his souvenirs, and the trader
returning rich to Palestine, all had their parts to play,
as did the sheep’s throat, cut
to placate the hill tribe elders; the informant’s remarks
weighed against the mechanics of torture;
his feckless wife,
her lover,
and the progressive form of the verb
indicating arrival.

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