In Casablanca

Ilias Orsin

In Casablanca.

Fog presses against the streets.

The grey sea roars over the rocks, dressing them in foam.

A light flickers on the minaret.

Someone feels his way along the quay.

In his black belgha, he survives step by step.

His dark djellaba dissolves into the fog.

A glimpse through a window, before the shutters slam.

Pale faces fading behind sweating glass.

The seagulls, my friends, circle above the harbor.

Condemned to loneliness, even in flocks.

They took the man.

And left behind a rough ruby.

Anna Karenina. Cleopatra. Cassandra.

When I found it, I did not understand its price.

That's where everything began.

In Casablanca.

Ilias Orsin is Moroccan-Austrian, based in Casablanca.