of minarets and marmosets
strolling although a stranger
to everything here but me
a dream of heat and mirage
camel shadows and mirhabs
quietly spoken dry tongues
suggest Mecca is near
Cairo; a distant purple shadow
far away yet nearby us here
strange names strangle speech
Philadelphia is a desert town
standing on dunes of brick dust
shading our aspected glare
I don't belong in this place
another land and another time...