Rhoiteia

Rhoiteia

     Reports of my passing continue.

Green leaves and sparse threads 

Conspire as lateen sails—

Dhow taut with tarred lapboard,

Crew of two who watch me shimmer

While I hoist a few tilapia 

With my hands or such —fish leap

To me like puppies eager to

Greet me —I am always recognized 

And never forgotten —Alexandria 

Swept me up from some clouds

That would have obscured me,

But I relented and allowed my

Form to fill out a bit as I resettled

Myself along the Nile, then selected

These fellows to accompany me

Onto the near shore where I created

A filmy repro of a lighthouse lit 

By some of my cousins, the jinn.

Nighttime hides every intention 

Crucial for my passion to hear, 

To smell the boys and the girls

Who gather wherever lyrics and wine

Coalesce —no stile against this embank

Ment, against the saltworks, beach

A bit farther along lends me firm

Entry while my wispy tentacles 

Strengthen into limbs and my hair

Gets a little looser, less snakey—