A Case Of Algiers 1974

Cast alone on a Mediterranean shore in 

rainy Algiers, dust from Morocco still

fresh on my boots. The sirocco wind

Blew me here to the English School.

Their wine is bitter, but the avocado is

fresh and the butter melts slowly. Then,

like a pebble falling gently in a pond, 

the vinyl drops upon the turntable. And

Joni Mitchell sings, “I’ve been to sea before,

Crown and anchor me.” I look from the

balcony, the sea like chords on Joni’s

guitar. “Down there,” said my host Felicia,

pointing to the alley below,” See that?

In the civil war the French shot hostages

and threw their bodies into the sea.”

But my mind had surrendered to wine.:

“I could drink a case of you, and I would 

still be on the feet.” Still on my feet.

I wrote that January night in 1974

so that you might understand a little

better all these years later. Where it

came from. And where it all went.