Michael Caylo-Baradi is an alumnus of The Writers’ Institute at The Graduate Center (CUNY), directed by André Aciman. His work has appeared in The Adirondack Review, Hobart, Kenyon Review Online, The Galway Review, Galatea Resurrects, London Grip, New Pages, PopMatters, and elsewhere. His debut pamphlet Hotel Pacoima came out in 2021 from Kelsay Books. In another name, he has been an editor’s pick for flash features at Litro Magazine.
drifts around
your tongue
littered with
souks, alleys
& nights
distilled
in silhouettes
expanding in
overlapping thumbprints
*
As always, thirst
levitates
through a garden
of hair
beyond navels
& beards
into an architecture
of curves
built for ablutions
& absolute surrender
Previously published: https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/marrakech/
Unveiled in Tangier
Finally, we gave in.
At least, for now.
Souks, alleys, and tunnels
guided us there,
through muezzins
flooding
the Strait of Gibraltar.
Your gestures
stretched the sun,
loud as minarets.
Floors tiled patterns,
rising on walls,
prayers, and
premonitions.
Moonlights, too,
had been squared out.
Their curves could
bind whispers,
in moments
gasping for God.
Previously published: https://www.thecommononline.org/2-poems/
Towards Algiers
The desert scatters
on our feet. It’s the only
surrender that counts,
vast, unobstructed.
Winds forge directions
for us, where
suns thirst
restless salaats.
Moons huddle
a glimmering city
in your eyes.
They curve down
your neck, down
to mine, as shadows
hold the arcs
of its light.
Previously published: https://www.thecommononline.org/2-poems/
Poetry in this post: © Michael Caylo-Baradi
Published with the permission of Michael Caylo-Baradi