Souk of the Butcher, Grocer

blood peach, melon & honey
marmalade on flat bread of wheat
fried to a crisp golden brown
in patches.

the cat on her cardboard throne
the unbearably thin kittens who doze
in the middle of the cobbled streets
and the hands that drift down
with caresses

the negotiation with the merchant:
argan oil
orange flower water
essense of roses in oil

Shannon: it is just as you have taught me,
rose petals in baskets between the tattooed meat and the figs,
the place of rose petals in the bedroom
by the toilet, because of the garbage, with the garbage

dishes of cumin, gray salt, pale pepper
the roasting of the sun