The Shisha Queen

TO MARK THE IMPENDING ARRIVAL OF "THE CHAMELEON AND THE CUCKOO CLOCK" HERE IS A TRAVEL POEM FOR YOU FROM THE BOOK (Illustration and poem by Miranda K.A. Welch © 2013)

She’s on holiday in Egypt
No more racing around for a little while
Her parents and she are touring in a group of Aussies She sees date palms, donkeys and carts
Rides camels
Drinks mint tea and smokes strawberry shisha
She says outlandish things
She makes everybody laugh
She was offered a thousand camels for a dowry
She’s the Shisha Queen
She’s happy sitting in the hot summer air
She likes the feel of her kaftan and scarf
Loosely keeping her covered from prying eyes
She loves the felukas in Aswan
She wants to swim in the Nile again
She’s looking out at the Alexandrian shoreline
It’s half past nine
And the breeze is fine
Out on the balcony
They’re smoking and laughing
The locals are out
They’re sober but they love their own company
Men arm in arm as comrades
Not gays
She’s staring into the twinkling lights
Ebbing off into the horizon
It would be nice to stay for a while
Chill out in a Bedouin tent on soft cushions
She could marry him and stay here
Live in a kaleidoscopic dreamland for a bit
What would happen when she wanted to go home? Would they all just stare?
But what would the local women say?
Would she be lonely in this world of crazy cars and ancient tombs?

Would she really forget forever her home? Getting further and further away . . .
All she can see is what’s around her Welcoming, candid faces
Bright colours
She could own a donkey,
Teach English in Cairo
But
The smog would burn her lungs
The sun would shrivel her up into a premature prune Better not stay

Will come back another day