Blue Prayer

Love arrived carried
by the call of a blue prayer.

The city air would not
release its heat.

The streets exhaled burnt coffee
and tobacco smoke,
grilled meat and salted air.

Someone was singing behind
a shuttered balcony.

A bird crossed the minaret
and disappeared into memory.

Hotel windows held temporary light.

A cat moved languidly
across the warm stone,
and disappeared beneath
the shadows of balconies.

I left my ghost to wander
near the old river.

The moon drifted soundlessly
above the city like a
galley lantern.

Stars whispered
as if the moon was listening.

And the city kept
breathing without us.