"Ode to Life in Morocco" by Marley Craine

Photo credit for banner image: Craine, 2023.

Six-dollar-gel-manicure nails

tinted by turmeric, curcumin,

stomach warm and full of meals eaten with hands.

I try not to care if the stomach expands.

Face touched by the sun; hair

puffed by the humidity-heat, la chaleur,  

then by the early November mist, la brume.

Brain full of situational French:

le séisme, tremblement de terre. Accueillir. Draps.

Here, there is love in unfamiliar places:

a man stops in the street to tuck a woman's

hair back behind her veil, sa voile. My host father

kisses my cheeks. I am besotted, folle,

with Milka chocolate bars and Poms soda.

There, old love waits for me:

on Sunday nights I call my parents.

They say every week they are prouder, fières.

Warm bed, dog, wine and pork.

I text friends and maybe-mores

until my turmeric-tinted thumbs fall off.

Marley Craine is a student at Macalaster University studying abroad in Morocco this Fall 2023 on Amideast’s Regional Studies in French program.