Women from Algiers sit like white marble in their own darkness, reaching slowly out for the weakest link in an unchanging realm. The holy government back home cannot explain its bacchic shadow, its nudes its maypoles. What do they hope to touch, except another snake crawling up a strange tree without branches? Women of Algiers stand in intersecting triangles trusting the light of creation to follow -- shining through their dresses toward the world of Emanation. These women out of Algiers are not really here in Arles expecting horsemen to come for them. The upper world may open its gates. But will the light shine down? In a landscape at sunset, they wait for the call to prayer. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AUGUST FIRST by HAYDEN CARRUTH IRELAND; WRITTEN FOR THE ART AUTOGRAPH DURING IRISH FAMINE by SIDNEY LANIER EPITAPH IN A CHURCH-YARD IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA by AMY LOWELL BRUTUS AND ANTONY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |