Ali Znaidi (b.1977) lives in Redeyef, Tunisia. He is the author of several chapbooks, including Experimental Ruminations (Fowlpox Press, 2012), Moon’s Cloth Embroidered with Poems (Origami Poems Project, 2012), Bye, Donna Summer! (Fowlpox Press, 2014), Taste of the Edge (Kind of a Hurricane Press, 2014), and Mathemaku x5 (Spacecraft Press, 2015).
For more, visit aliznaidi.blogspot.com and follow him on Twitter @AliZnaidi.
Interview with Ali Znaidi in M A R G U T T E
Sicily’s Agenda of the Orange Trees
Chlorophyllous leaves sway up and down
and back and forth in a spectacular fiesta.
—The botanical boughs are charged
w/ electrical beats; a feile-festa, a life.
Life is a scent. Oranges are the scent. Whatever
it takes, I can only say that life is the oranges.
—A singing sap sinks into your slumbering veins
compelling desire to shine thru your body.
& lust always spreads its wings thru the expansive
orange groves. & the bees are always swaying
in the breeze, divulging the secret
agenda of the orange trees.—A carnival.
Still, Sicily
Still utopian
the scent of her body.—
Drenched in the gist of orange juice,
now an embellished bride surrounded
by the ululations of the sirens.
Still experimenting w/ nature
the way Joyce experimented w/ words in Ulysses.
—A masterpiece in the Mediterranean Sea.
Lingering joy & mirth. A morning coffee
seducing you to wake up & sing.—A shield against
laziness.
Still luminescent
the light of her butterflies.
—A medicine for your aching heart.
Still an oily scent
distilled from a heavenly almond tree.
—An ointment for the wrinkles
of your aged body.
For other contributions by Ali Znaidi, please follow the links below:
Poetry in this post: © Ali Znaidi
Published with the permission of Ali Znaidi