Recently re-published by Modjaji Books In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot is now being translated into Spanish AND has been the subject of numerous academic articles and studies

COVER In Tangier to print lo-res

At first there was mud, and the sound of breathing,

and no one was sure where we were.

When we found out, it was much too late.

Now nothing can happen save as it has to happen.

And then I was alone, and it did not matter,

Only because by that time nothing could matter ….

We thought there were other ways.

The darkness would stay outside.

We are not it, we said. It is not in us …

There was a time when life went along brighter lines.

We still drank the water from the lake,

and the bucket came up cold

and sweet with the smell of deep water.’”

The song was everywhere that year, an absurd refrain:

It’s only that it seems so long, and isn’t.

It’s only that it seems so many years,

and perhaps it’s one.

When the trees were there I cared that they were there,

and now they are gone.

On our way out we used the path that goes around the swamp.

When we started back the tide had risen.

There was another way, but it was far above and hard to get to.

So we waited here, and everything is still the same.

There were many things I wanted to say to you

before you left, and now I shall never say them.

Though the light spills onto the balcony

making the same shadows in the same places,

only I can see it, only I can hear the wind

and it is much too loud.

The world seethes with words. Forgive me …