an on-line poetry magazine
for the 21st century

Youssef Alaoui

BUILDINGS ALL

Buildings all
sideways and powdery
sour with blood

Swollen blister pockets
of air to scream in
martyred charnel

How to escape you
every fallen leaf a horse
running free

melting into the earth
Dread sundown, cracked city
rocket fire toasts the air

We each wait our turn
we lose every next day
we live

Youssef Alaoui has spent most of his professional life in library stacks researching antiquated knowledge or cutting edge sciences. For a few years, he was a contracted international investigator. His home cities are San Luis Obispo, Tempe, Paris, Seattle, and Oakland. www.bio.site/youssefalaoui