charming cobras in the square

the first days in morocco, h & i are constantly deciphering its strangeness, familiarities (everything smells of woodsmoke & gasoline, incense, charred meat, sugary mint tea, dusty bodies, a cacophony of spice). eventually we give up. 'everything and nothing, all at once,' i decide. according to h, this world does not allow description, elaboration into words. (pencil & paper are for taking surface impressions instead of making our own sketches.) we record lists of everything, thin spiraling columns through notebook pages. we are taking the inventory of days, of things seen and people we meet.

marrakech: our first bewildered medina moment, smoke, cats eating offal in the alleyways, the city's screaming midnight, early quiet of the morning. empty orange rinds & juice vendors, the kind-eyed fruit man, the dripping smell of over-fried fish. sitting on plastic stools to drink sweet, milky coffee before breakfast, hand-painted pottery, tin teapots, our tentative sips of tea. 3 euro picnic-table dinners in the medina, food-poisoning, fresh leather & fake handbags. donkeys, street urchins, billowing steam in the hamman. the mysterious art of spice-cones, a cage full of tortoises, desert-men, mountain-men, medicine-men. we learn the names of all the herbs and spices by heart.

essaouira: bluewhite sky, seagulls, buildings, seashore. soccergames on the beach, the smell of salt & fish, a pyramid of oranges, breakfast on the hotel terrace. radouane's spiceshop, candlelit seaside seafood feasts. burgundy carpets & drifting music, the constant roar of the atlantic. camels, parasails, argan trees. the feeling of timelessness & too much mint tea. mailing addresses copied into my journal, fish pastries sour with lime juice under the midday sun. bread bought for 1 dirham, wrapped in arabic newspaper & a wornout hand against my face. the sun is setting in the land, an evercrescent moon, everything speeding by.