Author: Judith Terzi
Location: Pasadena, California
Judith Terzi's poetry has appeared widely in print and online and has been nominated for the Best of the Net and Best of the Web Anthologies. She won second place in Newport Review's 2010 Bananagram Contest and honorable mention in
Mad Hatters' Knock Our Hats Off Contest. She is the author of
The Road to Oxnard (Pudding House chapbook contest finalist, 2009) and
Sharing Tabouli (Finishing Line, 2011). She spent four years teaching English in Algeria and now lives in Southern California where she taught high school French for many years.
Maghreb Dazzle
Liberte, take my hand, lead me to the dazzle
of sea between the ochre ruins of Empire,
where shepherds & flocks meander
in meadows of mint & hills of asphodel.
Show me your rivers, the once dry riverbeds
now gushing
oueds where girls in floral dresses
scoop the glitter of sunlight.
Take me to the sinuous passageways
of your citadels where chiaroscuro
becomes only glow. There, let us climb
to sparkling wash of terraces where noons
pour down on geraniums red as revolution.
We'll watch the sun dip behind giant ships.
Then, you'll lead me to mirages of caravans,
to spices spread out in your souks & medinas
like turbans & tapestries. We'll close our eyes,
follow the perfumes of orange blossom
& moist earth between the jasmine of dreams.
