One Poem by Manuela Palacios

Ketama 

 

The car waltzed along the sinuous coast road 

a tar frill skirting the ochre slopes 

framed by a rousing fantasy of blues. 

 

Eyes poring over the map to spot the crossroad 

ears registering talk on the artificial 

paradises professed by the furtive crops. 

 

The joy and comfort of camaraderie. 

All at once, our host pulls up by a busy café 

and treats us to msemen direct from the griddle. 

 

Solacing childhood memories for one 

obliging contentment for the other 

the regal sun bestowing light on the three of us. 

 

A perfect picture. 

 

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, 

in a cloud of dust, a hermit-looking beggar approaches 

as if issuing from the ancient scriptures. 

 

He presses on, enters the café, disregards the vexation 

aroused by his destitute presence. 

A young, infuriated waiter chases him out of the premises. 

 

 

                                              

Manuela Palacios -  lectures on anglophone literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain).

She has edited, translated and written about Irish, Galician and Arabic poetry. Among the recent anthologies she has edited are Migrant Shores: Irish, Moroccan & Galician Poetry (Salmon Poetry 2017) and Ανθολογία Νέων Γαλικιανών Ποιητών - Antoloxía De Poesía Galega Nova (Vakxikon 2019).

Some of her poems have appeared on online literary magazines such as Live Encounters, Impspired, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and in anthologies such as 100 Words of Solitude (Rare Swan Press 2021).