Starlight

Starlight

Far south in Morocco,
across mountains, beyond markets, beyond noise,
a comfortable corner of the desert.

An indentation for a body,
lying naked in the supporting Earth.

The sun slips
until the final rays of day
drain out over the ocean
and there is darkness of a depth
and a clarity of air
such that the light on the body
is just the light from stars.

A fragmented, prickly, broken light.
This light has a thousand million histories:
a cat's cradle of time and motion,
a tangled mass of histories
tanning a body.

To be gently tanned in starlight.
With this peace
the mind
may expand effortlessly to the boundaries,
to the sources.

Graham Buchan

Graham Buchan
17 Capstan Square
Isle of Dogs
London E14 3EU.