Cascades of Ouzoud

On my way from here to there...

I stopped for a bit of fresh mountain air

Walked to a precipice and away fell the earth ...

And water rushed too and with it my breath

For until your feet are standing on edge
No one can fathom what awaits you ahead
Irrigation trench streams turn into falls
Clamorous, glamorous, uproarious and tall

And the mouth of the world opens wide
Before your toes into a great paradise
And your eyes follow waterfall fall fall
As it rushes from pool to spill into pool

Little bridges and people, like an imaginary
Place stretch across rivulets and up scary
Hills where stairs meander through olive tree
Boughs covering hillside and oft a snatch of path appears


Amidst all the ruckus of splashing and tumbling
My mind drew away to a quiet still rumbling
I devoured my book and scribbled all day
Thoughts pouring through me on pages to stay

Little blue and green rafts cobbled
Together with rusted barrel and rotten
Wood, offering tours to glide through
The pools to a waterfall's frothy spew

And then I was sitting, having some lunch
When who do you think I found all hunched
And clambering up the mud walls ... but barbary apes
My bread, their little paws snatched and made great escape