Djami

Paul Bowles signing prints of his photographs, Tangier, 1990 (Simon Bischoff)

Djami
______________

Djami
Tarominaesque
Zeiss Ikon
Perfect Backwardness
Young Djami
Arcadian Touch
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Djami

“I personally
am content to see
everything in the
process of decay”
—Paul Bowles,
Pages from Cold Point

rimbaud is bitter—
and sarcastic, cynical
verging on macabre

his attitude of—
non-involvement
as silent observer

definitely calculating—
opportunist with a
demonic hustler streak

after verlaine—
and the parnassians
can one blame him?

Tarominaesque

newly discovered—
photos take by rimbaud
tell us more…

more than maybe—
we want to know about
the exiled gay voyant

rimbaud buys a leica—
in tangiers for his new
picturesque poetry

wilhelm von gloeden—
has some prints in his
library that survived

Zeiss Ikon

later a zeiss ikon—
begins capturing djami
palais jami hotel rooftop

djami’s primitiveness—
which rimbaud always
tries to preserve

a power which—
magnetizes rimbaud
submerged in archaic

releasing rimbaud—
from the civilization
he hates in europe

Perfect Backwardness

a force so potent—
that he falls prey to being
obsessed with djami

a boy of the most—
perfect backwardness
exciting in his maleness

living proof that—
one can return to young
primitivo sexuality

djami is his passport—
back into time and
omnipresent maleness

Young Djami

djami is sixteen—
when rimbaud meets him
handsome & olive-skinned

a strong body with—
big hands like rimbaud
a face with a broken nose

his goodlooks linking—
him back to colonial times
morocco & early italy

he dresses traditionally—
baggy white trousers
and chandrisi plus

woolen djellaba over—
his naked skin, hard flat
stomach under his cloak

Arcadian Touch

the small prints—
that rimbaud makes
of djami back then

they evoke nostalgia—
with their sepia tones
faded edges, zigzag cut

the relationships—
between westerners
and moroccan youth…

tales of initiation—
libidinous codes meeting,
connecting, creating