Cargo Literary Magazine

Compelling stories of human development through the lens of travel

  • Home
  • Issues
  • Features
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Photography
    • Poetry
    • Review
    • Visual Art
  • Submit
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Contact

Aleppo

Alex MacConochie

Our hearts are with you, Aleppo.
–Mo

Aleppo

Here at last, city of a million
Or a couple: sudden feeling of emptiness
And “that color must be the national—
How do you call it, in English?” Beige
Everywhere: the foreign hotel and border
Guards’ uniforms, the epaulettes, houses,
The skies a purple zero overhead
(Long day since the duty-free)
Night, the Christian Quarter blurts and blares

Fall in love as slowly as you can
Come down: mango juice in plastic chairs,
The great big plink of God on the terrace rail.
Her cigarette, still trailing embers,
Spinning past the neon minaret.

* * *

 

Unmap

After Pamukkale, wonder
Of rivulet-carved white
Mineral cascades, hot springs
And martyrion half-collapsed
Among bright poppies,

Morning cai and wet formica,
Ice cream in an everyday
Park, no monuments, Efes
At some upstairs blue-lit lounge,

Directions from children
And bright-painted leaning houses,
Back streets of Denizli

A dusty, prosaic place,
Jingoistic flag displays
We hadn’t planned to see

Where no one knew we’d gone.
Now you do.

Sat again in that small café
Waiting for the overnight, said
Strangely exhilarating and
Attendants hosed the coaches down,

Inexplicable ubiquitous
Cleansing. Showed each other pictures
Of each other climbing ruins
And each other drinking cai
There, mid-morning orange

Glass behind him now
Smeared red with brake light
Reflections behind her
Laughing no one knows we’ve been

Here. This disconnected glory haven’t
Really felt in years so

Now: give away the secret one
Time shared alone.

  • * * *


Tombs in Lycia

On hidden heights, dark
Narrow slots where lords
Lay buried among splintered
Looted jars, blank
Black oblongs cut

In splotchy reddish cliffs
Up sandy paths from white
-walled friendly honking Kas:
Broad lintel and columns,
Porches for gulls, most

Visible from slow blue
Inlets, a rented boat:
Loopholes out of this
World that don’t beckon,
Glide by and will never make

One promise. Chambers
All care-carved entrance
And emptiness behind.
One, in town, was bolder. Stone
Small house with inscription

Hacked in cream to umber rock,
Pillar-balanced room, sharp
Roof with blunt-nosed dragons
Jutting out. A piebald cat
Mewed from the garbage bins

And someone read the plaque
Nearby in halting Turkish.
Stand on tip-toe: look
Through its window: borrow
Perspective on forever

Before infinity
Or zero: a four-walled void,
Solidity nothing
Demanded. But bore in
To hollow what resists

The Lycians replied. Chisel
Conquerings in stone. Build
Monuments from air the earth’s
Tough plenitude encloses.
Save what’s heaviest, hardest
To repurpose for the dead.

 

photo: Alex MacConochie

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

About Alex MacConochie

Alex MacConochie is pursuing a PhD in English literature at Boston University. His poems have recently appeared in Vilas Avenue, The Fredericksburg Literary and Arts Review, and elsewhere.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: Syria

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to to receive new issues and updates from Cargo Literary Magazine.

Tags

Africa Alaska Art Brighton England Canada Central America China Cuba Egypt England Europe France Germany Greece Guatemala Home Hungary India Israel Italy Japan Madrid Mexico Nepal New York City Niagara Ontario Oregon Paris Paris France Philippines Poland Puerto Rico Sahara Singapore South Korea Spain Syria Thailand Tibet travel Turkey Veranasi India Vietnam writing life
« Red City
Happiness Will not Wait »

© 2023 · Cargo Literary Magazine · Website by SunriseWeb.ca