by Susan Lewington

Shrouded sleek secreted burqas

billowing

mesmerising

kohl – lined,   bullet eyes

–    glinting.

Gilded clicking Arabic

magical

kinetics

connect lyrical

–        castanet voices.

Delicate dynamic

melodic

prosaic

quelled   rhyming

–           Arabic chants.

Alien identity

diminished

hidden beneath

layers

of bold

–     Otherness.

Dwarfed in context time

and place,

I slide between

imbedded

cracks of tortured tiles

–           a puddle.

I

am

the only

Outsider

Here.

Another Day Above the Ground