Algiers, my first love

Algiers

This the gap-toothed sunset in Algiers
the mediterranean tamed and teemed in by port steel
by the mountained edge of the kasbah

the kasbah
whose arched alleys snaggle-teethed steps dark, ratty
whose thin cut streets break off
crumble at the edges into green-neon pharmacy signs
into rusty scales weighted with speckled bananas.

Algiers, Algiers you are wrapped in thin blossomed roads,
in the bellowing calls for sunset's prayer,
in drop-offs into the salty, puffy blue skirt of the mediterranean.
Cover up your face,
use the heavy shouldered roll of fog
use the spring-time trees
use the speeding train cars
but please hid yourself, your beauty.