On:

They keep doves in the palace & release themCeremoniously each sunset to mark the workOf women greeting husbands return from warThey light candles to hide the scent of sweatIn the red bedchambers while children watchMaids turndown sheets warmed w/ stonesFrom the garden where their mothers weepSilently mid prayer let usContinue Reading

On:

In the sandy haze, the pyramids riselike apparitions. There is nothing elsevisible in this land of sand and rockand rubble. They have spent a long time acclimating to the harsh conditions.It’s hot and dry and gets unbearable,but still they patiently impose their presence,having prolonged the inevitable. They challenge us toContinue Reading

On:

Remember that words have power when spunThe way they turn spider silk into tapestriesRemember your enemies laugh themselvesOnto the floor for the same reasons as youRemember the sound of my voice as I rockedEach of you to sleep during the rainstormsIf I cannot see you off to be married doContinue Reading

On:

How to get familiar with infinity . . .A camel ride into the Saharato stargaze a wide open desert sky? The astronomer Carl Sagan once saidstars outnumbered grains of sand on beaches—so I rode a camel from Merzouga out into oceanic dunes of sandand sat there after sunset for theContinue Reading

On:

a masculine marmaladeour feline bathesbetween his toesmore assiduouslythan anyone we knowclaws flexingto and frolike translucent crescent moonscored by conquered bloodthe rasping strokeof his scouring tonguea ferocity pristineas raindrops or water hoseamong the wieldedyielding thornsof this bucephalus-headed rose. My name is Aletha Irby and I have been writing poetry for overContinue Reading