Where Are You?

I am on a safari in Africa

the ground is orangy and the sky dusty in Timbuktu

I drown in the foreign dialect of idle and invisible people from Timbuktu

we are trapped in interminable discussions by the gate of a Daedalean building in Timbuktu

I wrap myself in my burnoose cross the threshold without thinking twice silence shrouds me in Timbuktu

above the ocher adobe asymmetrical unequal walls of the labyrinth my mind plays with the scenes of a hectic and fast world like the English Punch & Judy show or the French Guignol or the German Kasperle where I'm the marionette and they're real people picked at random in my memory after a while the kaleidoscope stops and the images fall in the labyrinth only I the puppet stay up there down below the images are arranged in a thread of colors resembling a snake stretching through the maze drawn on a giant board game made of a warren of narrow dark alleys gray yards and somber side streets filled with people for there are only people on the images printed on the scales of the twisted body of the snake in the labyrinth of the board game in Timbuktu

when I pick one person’s image it starts the movie related to him or her I play with several of them returning sometimes to one or the other combining two or three in the same scene they all know each other they play rather well under my direction or so I think until I notice the transparency of the images of the people of the reality kept by my memory I know I'll have to paint them in brighter colors to bring them back to real life when I wake up that’s what I’ll do on paper with my stories but for now I'd rather enjoy the InterZone and the sight of someone’s lips unquiet over my left nipple the one which comes out slowly but gives me the most sensations and then this and that and then and then I come to my senses and I dream again in Timbuktu

from my overhead position the serpentine body reads make love not war the images on the scales of the snake turn into real people making love their bodies move in tantalizing rhythm with invisible drums beating like the heart of a newborn the snake wants free from the hospital labyrinth but it lies backward there is no room to turn around and crawling in reverse is impossible on scales the snake exits through the entrance and finds itself as free as it would on the normal exit side there is no need to go back inside and disturb again these lovely lovemaking people motioning in inducing rhythm with hiding drumbeats resounding like the pulsation of my heart and the liberation chant of the snake we are now one and the same in Timbuktu

our attention picks up a song sung by Sirens living below the board game but this is impossible you exclaim or we'd be on a boat yes you're right this is a boat looking like a board game in the shape of a labyrinth floating on the sea where Sirens sing a song covering the heartbeat of people making love inside a maze at the entrance of which lies a puzzled but free snake made of a puzzle of images of people from my life I am tranced by the lilting trilling of the vocalism from the abyss the boat is pitching the singing of the Sirens turns into a series of sounds from the throat of a woman now the boat rolls and louder grows the voice and rockier becomes the boat help help it is going to capsize help help I don't want to die in Timbuktu

Honey, you’re snoring up a storm and I can’t sleep in Timbuktu