In memory of Skip and Mary Dickinson For Quintin and Griffin  And for Louise Dennys,  of you, I am sure, remember tragic circumstances of ton at Gilf Kebir, folloer by ton,  expedition in search of Zerzura.

    “I cannot begin ting tonig referring very sympatically to tragic occurrences.

    “ture tes of ty meeting of November 194-, London

    I

    the Villa

    SANDS UP in to tance. S in ther.

    t of all cypresses s drops of rain on ers the house.

    In tc pause but goes t and climbs tairs  t from an open door.

    Surns into trees and boed over its walls and ceiling.

    to turns owards ers.

    Every four days s troyed feet. Ss a o . Beyond purple. Bone.

    Sight hips.

    , s.  on  ted onto ts canopy of branc, blue sky.

    Sripes across  s cliff of skin. Reaco ters.

    ? s of ration.

    urns s grey eyes toone and passes t into h.

    ening  of to  o during ths before he died.

    tories tes quietly into to level like a ed arbour t surrounds s spilling flo trees. s of  noo the colour of aubergine.

    I  , forgetting to look at to t sins of omission but signs of preoccupation.

    o tare ravel alongside o the wall. She leans forward. how were you burned

    It is late afternoon. , t.

    I fell burning into t.

    t of sticks and dragged me across t. e self caugand up naked out of it. t on my rapped me onto a cradle, a carcass boat, and feet t.

    t fire. t planes t since 1939  of tools and utensik al of crasanks. It ime of to pick t from a cockpit became jeo stand up alive out of a burning mac kno knoribe.

    ho are you?

    I don’t know. You keep asking me.

    You said you were English.

    At nigired enougo sleep. So ever book so find in tairs.

    talking face, barely revealing at trees and vista t decorate tens to er.

    If it is cold so t upon  giving  even .

    Sometimes at t asleep, he darkness.

    . tle of tin cans wcer.

    to large pieces of soft cloted.

    man o uny-four  nigo examine he dark.

    Unclot. t over  great nation  country invented suc dates to be c mouto ime  remember he air.

    Later, at tal in Pisa,

    and cened tes and passed to h.

    ts. No speecar of y  te of saliva t entered e or by t running.

    S and read, t. S al,  gradually, t over.

    time in  s of  at t table, o memorize diverse jes on a tray, tossed from teaco teacaug taugaugo escape tic.

    t for more tes s t ts skin. A scurry in  ient and ables planted in t orco survive, a man coming noorade soap and ss and  in tal for otials. Some beans, some meats. t tles of er s back to t table just outside ter-closed door and sip ao wever book she was reading.

    So tened intently or not,  like sections of a road orms, missing incidents as if locusts ion of tapestry, as if plaster loosened by t night.

    t sed no be entered because of rubble. One bomb crater alloo tairs—wly soaked armchair.

    S concerned about t  ty-six” or “page one  or. Sed boto ill in them.

    Your ting rough, he said.

    tles and digging.

    Be careful. I  the dangers.

    I know.

    to read.

    aug  a dog’s pas paer, is test smell in t! Great rumours of travel! Send disgust, but t never suggested dirt. It’s a cat field of grasses, a ration of s of all taken during the day.

    A scurry in the book again.

    ting for it.  civilisation  understood tions of ? El A be one of t desert tribes. tc of tted togete garden in t Kee and various, like levels of ash on a hill.

    o taugo raise rengto  pulled dohe covered sun.

    Alments, or darkness, against   seemed to be opped and , t noise like t of a bird, per fox, w in a sewn- in his burnoose.

    t day c of t toles on different lengtring and  of a glass curtain,  sphere.

    t of all tried to copy as a sc, so smootilt in ttles. A s tles o skin to ed especially for a ed lig glass noise and the regal walk and his face like a lean dark gun.

    Up close ted, glass t  its civilisation. Eactle e cork t eet in tle’s contents eeth.

    ood over ticks deep into t yoke, icks. epped out from under o o and put here.

    o everyone along te from to Giza, ty Days Road.  traded spice and liquid, and moved beter camps. orms  of bottles, o  doctor, tist. er a camp and set up tain of bottles in front of whoever was sick.

    and leaned back to pluck,  even looking, certain bottles. itiny bottle t. t. Indigo. Ink. River-mud arroance as ts. o rub green-black paste onto t ered for in a medina to t or t potent healer of skin.

    Betcroyed co an oval-s for a large  portrait level in tar-stack on t of ted itself to ting ts of ars, t, tuffed bear and  torn  of tning came into too, again and again, falling across t.

    At t o ty-six penitent steps past toed from, so most rooms not needed, like ty, to their frames.

    So to its afternoon darkness. Sood conscious suddenly of  on t rigger .

    t poured tar circle t looked onto the sky.

    ition, as if it led from one single unit, s t of t ion, t to be disturbed, sepping on prints, for safety, but also as part of a private game, so it eps t sered the seal of warning.

    S in tient’s room, ted iff  self on tive of 1757. Illustrated by N. C. yet books, tant page  of illustrations, a line of text for eachem.

    Sered tory kno stretcy years, ences and moments, as if ah a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams.

    talian oinel to t route, ery surrounded by apple and plum orche generals lived.

    Just above it tlelike battlements  t strong roops. As too be torn apart like a battles sea, by fire sroops moved from tents in to tions of ts of top storey of took over t a al, teps leading to tion of chimney and roof survived.

    Sed on remaining beients moved to a safer location in time t electricity. Some rooms faced onto t all. S a sodden bed  a corner, covered o landscape.

    Some rooms had become an open aviary.

    taircase  its loeps during t  before t. So ty books and nailed to to eac steps. Most of t t , drencorms t came in tar ever  escaped burning during t April of 1945. t. So be nomadic in t or imes in tient’s room, sometimes in temperature or ress and tied it into a  ing sunligs s in rooms t  on ting landscape of stars, moving clouds, ning.

    Sy years old and mad and unconcerned y during time,  t startled . Sless after ted to dark, protected spaces. Sered rooms t ure  leaves and s and urine and cables. S,  reposed in his bed like a king.

    From outside, tated. An outdoor staircase disappeared in midair, its railing entative safety. tial candlelig niged everytected by t t t s safe  and  of  duties for ter good. Sient. So ion h him.

    S crucifix from t to build a scarecro wtered and clanked wed.

    itep from rubble to a candlelit alcove case, ters, a feal box of medical supplies. S small sections of this she could burn down if she wished.

    Ss a matc onto t lifts itself onto s .

    S and e cangle onto tinues backangles, so t  on t. till so s crouching.

    So t of ands and pulls up t and ties it around . S a piece of metal and flings it out in front of  falls just beyond t square.

    So tennis so eacangle, one foot landing, t, til s square.

    Sal, pauses in t position, motionless,  still tucked up above akes a gulp of air and blo the candle.

    Now s a smell of smoke.

    Surns so sill landing on squares sennis so t into ted Italian villa, out to he building.

    Sometimes at nig surns up o dra interpret or place.

    Sebook t lies on table beside  is t ories by us t o, cutting and gluing in pages from oting in ions—so text of us.

    So read ing.

    t imes reaco ty of Rome. t of Yugoslavia. tened are/or rifi,   live in t tense.

    tant  cion, t can knock do roz leaps into Afgan for 170 days —burying villages. t, dry gunis,  storm t dresses in brigres tan, self into tlantic.  Imbat, a sea breeze in Nort just sigo dust storms t come  in Egypt from Marco May, named after ty,” blooming for fifty days—t. too out of Gibraltar, which carries fragrance.

    t , wer .

    And t—a blast out of Arabia. t and cold souterly knoo Berbers as “t  of turkey, “poison and en in battle. As  plucks off rare petals, causing giddiness.

    Ote winds.

    travelling along ting off paint, telepransporting stones and statue tan blo, dust as fire, as flour, entering and coagulating in t of ted as far nort taken for blood. “Blood rains ed   in Portugal and Spain in 1901.” tons of dust in t as tles, underground creatures) ting on it. us records tion  t and marc in full battle array, only to be rapidly and completely interred.” Dust storms in t. In t t. In tzing Ginns.” t, is “copper-tinted. Nature seems to be on fire.”  So talk across the darkness.

    t. I am a man s skeletal sion like a sea in me. I am a person . So ory enters us. I kne depict s painted on skin t contain tes of the Crusades.

    So I kneraversed it in an earlier age, for t greed. I kneoms of nomads besotted by silk or ribe dyed a o increase convection and ty of rainfall, and built ructures to pierce tribes  if t t moment t a storm into an adjacent sp, toribe. tinual droribes suddenly made orical heir gasp.

    In t it is easy to lose a sense of demarcation.  of to t, into troug t build a raft... I must build a raft.

    And er people.

    In tassili I ime er s. In adi Sura I sas edge, six thousand years ago.

    Ask a mariner  kno t can be seen in rock draic. ill found in t. ter people. Even today caravans look like a river. Still, today it is er  between your h.

    among tom, a cell of torical animal, and to place.

    did most of us knotlefield eigo t.  tanks, Blenor biplane fig thousand men.

    But  marsing th Africa, in Sidi Rezegh, in Baguoh.

    ravelled on a skid beemperature fell. t of t’s er tribe t spilled and slid over sand and stones, ting like a spray of milk or a ed t cloto tone whey camped.

    In took o talking loudly  around   suddenly clarifying. he buried guns.

    oraigo reac a yard or so.

    After days of travel, to move to lean tooucill oucen barrel and t go of o translate the guns.

    “tre Breda macaly.” , inserted o find no bullet, pus back and pulled trigger. Putered. he was moved forward again.

    “Frenc-five-millimetre Ctelerault. Ligeen ty-four.” “German seven-point-nine-millimetre MG-Fifteen air service.

    to eaco be from different time periods and from many countries, a museum in t. ours of tock and magazine or fingered t.  to anot   matter to t t to kno  the gun was.

    again and o a box of cartridges. In anoto t hers.

    , and on ttered a deck of cards face doaugo turn up tually, trout streams, birdcalls t ing fragment. A fully named oed t, bolted it, and  up in ting itself in  to be sullen and mad ten t sentence do, picking up toget to , and firing eacion into to eac urn to face one direction, to time on range ock. —t and ter tude. t he men who had saved him for such a purpose.

    travel into er of use-fulness from tribe to tribe. tribes representing eigers specific customs and specific music.

    Mostly blindfolded er-draribe ations, daes antly sounding a drone).

    to territory of five-stringed lyres. A village or oasis of preludes and interludes. iph-onal dance.

    only after dusk, ribes too  across tes flung a of breeze. Or tes s to desirable te as papyrus, liging s on omaco ankle, revealing ning.

    t desert surrounds traversed by a loose order of storms and caravans. ts and dangers around   times  kno so clean it leaves no pain, and  ill untouco signal to ors. t into in complete silence, or t see ted? Dreamed by  and darkness

    ter oed s of er. And ty of an innocent dancing boy, like sound from a boy cer,  river er, t transparent dept, , everyted—like t of linen across terbirtals against the colour of fire.

    ts smoke ruments like a pulse or rain. ts  fire, to silence tes. tsteps s t over to te translator of guns and passes it into  you celebrate not er.

    Sands over t, looking at tucco y room. So side, releasing a movement of ss er into ill it is completely . t  hunder.