Esh 'Dani Alash Msheet (Must I Follow Him?)

[munkinhead]

Algiers in a vivid dream;

Mother Africa caresses a stillborn sea,
mourning Tethys,
she measures,
against her long memory,
the distance to the stone raft of Iberia.
Must I, too, remember?

Trees make their pallid escape
as ghost forests shed golden kingdoms,
and fossil rivers meander beneath living dunes.
Must I remember?
Must I follow?

The shimmering caravansary
rises like a mirage.
Where kings and caliphates molder,
must I follow?

[tailor STATELY]

Wonderful imagery.

Especially liked "Trees make their pallid escape
as ghost forests"; the other first two lines of each verse work well for me too.

Your punctuation is well defined except (where I'm puzzled) by the transition from:
"as ghost forests
shed golden kingdoms."
Prolly just me but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Well done.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[munkinhead]

Did I miss a comma in that verse somewhere?
I dont see it, but that doesn't surprise me.

[CellarDoor]

Especially like the last stanza, particularly the line "Where kings and caliphates molder". The vocabulary, tone, and imagery work in synergy to create a vivid portrait.

[munkinhead]

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