Taybeh- Wadi Moussa, Jordan
We arrive at sunset.
Stretch out stiff limbs
and open eyes to see the sandstone sculptures
carved from cloud shape shifting above Petra.
The Craft's Souq
There's a glass blower-
the solid daub ledge holds a cotillion
of green and blue glass-
breakable shapes spun as he blows
and pulls and dips and spills and whips
and drops and pulls a cobra
from liquid glass dripping and twirled.
The hot furnace is a nest of orange red
in the dusky room.
Night is outside and we stand near enough
to be warmed by the stove,
desert nights can be colder than you think.
I hold the youngest child,
feel him twitch and twist as the glass blower
moves arms stretched up and out suspending
red glass that drops into a iridescent swan.
Harrisburg Review, July Issue, 1998
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