Women from Algiers sit like white marble in their own darkness, reaching slowly out for the weakest link in an unchanging realm. The holy government back home cannot explain its bacchic shadow, its nudes its maypoles. What do they hope to touch, except another snake crawling up a strange tree without branches? Women of Algiers stand in intersecting triangles trusting the light of creation to follow -- shining through their dresses toward the world of Emanation. These women out of Algiers are not really here in Arles expecting horsemen to come for them. The upper world may open its gates. But will the light shine down? In a landscape at sunset, they wait for the call to prayer. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT CANDLE-LIGHTIN' TIME by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR REBEL COLOR-BEARERS AT SHILOH by HERMAN MELVILLE THE MODERN MOTHER by ALICE MEYNELL POLWART ON THE GREEN by ALLAN RAMSAY TO THE VERS LIBRIST WHO USES ONLY THE MINOR KEY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS A QUESTION by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE WINTER-SPRING by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |